Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made waves in September expensive (and legally questionable) anti-immigrant Stunt That saw about 50 migrants fly from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. DeSantis and other Florida officials defended the flight on two main grounds: First, as a chance per to reveal Liberal hypocrisy, and secondly, as a measure to “protect the people of the State of Florida.”
Liberal hypocrisy is not complete to implement; A resident of Martha’s Vineyard quickly Volunteers as translators, integrated shelters, and prepared meals for immigrants before them continued to other destinations. Floridians’ claim to protection also rests on shaky ground. The flights targeted immigrants who weren’t even in Florida. (Desantis claimed that “most of them [were] intending to come to Florida.”)
These problems did not discourage DeSantis. In its 2023-24 budget, announcement On Wednesday, the governor requested $12 million to continue his “initiative to protect Floridians against harm caused by illegal immigration by facilitating the transportation of unauthorized aliens.” will be $12 million used “To cover all costs associated with facilitating the transportation of visiting unauthorized aliens, including, but not limited to, litigation costs.”
The request reflects a provision in the 2022-23 budget that “funds a program to facilitate the transportation of unauthorized aliens.” from this state Consistent with federal law” (emphasis added) this time, DeSantis wants transport Immigrants “from anywhere in the United States to any jurisdiction.” Spending taxpayer money to protect Floridians, in other words, need not involve anything that happens in Florida.
Of course, Martha’s Vineyard flights didn’t originate in Florida (although they did rooted Via Crestview, Florida, apparently fuel) given conflict With the “from this state” budget language—among other procedural issues—state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-Miami) filed A lawsuit to prevent DeSantis from spending more money on immigrant transportation Last month, a judge in Florida rejected DeSantis’ request to toss the suit. He also has administration war A lawsuit filed by immigrants.
Axios The report states that “Florida could pay up to $1 million to defend itself” in immigration cases. That effectively leaves taxpayers with two bills: one to fund the initial stunt, and one to clean up the damage. It also happened in Arizona, where former governor Doug Ducey to spend $95 million in state funding for a shipping container wall along the US-Mexico border, which was constructed on tribal land without permission (and proven in vain to deter immigrants). it will be cost Removed $76 million. Taxpayers are losing out in Texas, too: As of November, Gov. Greg Abbott was to spend More than $20 million in state funding to bus immigrants to DC, New York City and Chicago, at a cost of $1,600 per capita.
As for DeSantis, the request for immigrant transportation funding comes as part of a budget that he claims will “put more money in the pockets of Floridians.” (Never mind that this rings a bell record $115 billion.) A fiscally responsible governor would recognize immigrants contribution Funded by the public mainly through taxation, usage Similarly situated native-born Americans have lower rates of welfare, and both fill and create important jobs. DeSantis has proven more interested in a showy big-government stunt that punishes taxpayers and immigrants alike.