Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday ordered the National Guard to help respond to an influx of migrants coming ashore by boat near Key West, and used the occasion to again lash out at President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
(Bloomberg) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday ordered the National Guard to help respond to an influx of migrants coming ashore by boat near Key West, and used the occasion to again lash out at President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
The National Guard will help ease the strain on local law enforcement from the latest wave of migrants from Cuba and Haiti to the Florida Keys and help “prevent further migrant landings,” DeSantis said in a statement. Since January 3,345 undocumented immigrants have arrived in the Keys, adding to more than 8,000 who’ve been interdicted in Florida since August, the order said.
On Monday, DeSantis used his second-term inaugural speech to bash Biden’s immigration policies as “a mockery of the rule of law.” On Friday, DeSantis declared a state of emergency over what he described as the “Biden Border Crisis.”
“As the negative impacts of Biden’s lawless immigration policies continue unabated, the burden of the Biden administration’s failure falls on local law enforcement who lack the resources to deal with the crisis,” DeSantis said in his statement.
DeSantis, who’s widely expected to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has repeatedly used an increase in undocumented immigration to fan support.
In September, he gained national attention by arranging the flights of dozens of undocumented migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, as his way of bringing the border crisis to Democrat-led states. Biden responded by accusing Republican governors of using people “as props.”
DeSantis didn’t say how the National Guard would help block migrants from landing. A spokesman referred questions to the Florida Department of Emergency Management, which didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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