Florida Legislature Votes to Expand Gov. DeSantis Program That Moves “Migrants” Out of State

Florida legislators passed Friday a bill expanding GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis is authorized to fly migrants into Democrat-run States and Cities.

The bill is in response to the recent influx of migrants arriving in Key West and expands the DeSantis administration’s earlier efforts to move migrants to others states by formally creating the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, according NBC News.

Conservatives believe the program is essential to highlight the U.S. border crises, while liberals and other commentators compare it to Human trafficking. 

The bill was passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives and Senate in a vote along party lines. It now goes to DeSantis for signature.

Jeremy Redfern (a spokesperson for DeSantis) said that the governor will examine the bill “in its final form and decide on the merits of the bill as presented.”I

In September 2022, DeSantis flew Venezuelan migrants from Texas to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard and said the funding came from the state budget. 

Democrats and immigrant advocates sued DeSantis as well as other officials in the state for fraud to political ends. Some migrants claimed that they were misled as to the location of their relocation.

This expansion comes just weeks after thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants arrived in the Florida Keys.

Many of them made the trip in small boats that weren’t even seaworthy.

“We can just sit here and do nothing about it,” DeSantis stated last week. “Or we can actually stand up and say, ‘Whatever tools we have at our disposal, we are going to be using.’ “

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