The comments, made during an appearance on a podcast hosted by conservative radio host Dana Loesch, come as Florida braces for a potential influx of Haitian migrants entering the state, which has one of the largest populations of Haitians and Haitian-Americans in the U.S.
“We do have our transport program also that’s going to be operational,” the Republican governor said. “Haitians land in the Florida Keys, their next stop very well may be Martha’s Vineyard.”
DeSantis, alongside Florida’s GOP senators, have been pressing the Biden administration to enact stricter immigration policies amid the political upheaval in Haiti and reports of gangs committing jailbreaks, releasing possibly scores of criminals onto the streets. So far, Florida has not seen a huge influx of migrants from Haiti even as the country descends into violence and citizens face homelessness and hunger.
In reaction to the violence in Haiti, the DeSantis administration last week deployed dozens of officers and soldiers, alongside helicopters, drones and seacraft, to South Florida to help scour the Keys for vessels arriving from the country. DeSantis noted Tuesday that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers recently intercepted a Haitian boat and found 25 people, including five unaccompanied children, on board and reported finding firearms, night vision gear and drugs.
“Look, Dana, I’ve got to defend my state,” DeSantis said. “I’ve got enough issues just dealing with people fleeing from blue states moving into Florida.”
But now DeSantis says Florida is preparing for more action by resuming a program that relocated migrants from the Texas border to liberal bastions in the northeast — Martha’s Vineyard — and Sacramento to the West.
DeSantis often used illegal immigration and the rise in migrants at the Southern border as a cudgel against the Biden Administration, especially while he was running for president before dropping out in January. Last year, DeSantis also signed into law one of the country’s strictest anti-illegal immigration laws in the country that prohibits undocumented immigrants from driving in the state even if they have a valid license issued from another state and requires hospitals that receive Medicaid to ask patients their immigration status.
Florida’s initial migrant flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022 sparked outcry from liberals across the country, as well as lawsuits and an investigation by a Texas sheriff and the U.S. Department of Treasury’s inspector general. The DeSantis administration still has millions of dollars available for the program, which sent two flights of migrants to Sacramento in June as a protest to federal immigration policies and a shot at Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I definitely think we can help put them back over the border if they come across in Texas or Arizona,” DeSantis said. “I’d be willing to help do that. I think that the states have no other choice to do that.”