The Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, plans to continue flying undocumented migrants to Democratic strongholds, his spokeswoman said on Saturday, a day after released records showed the state paid nearly $1m to arrange two sets of flights to Delaware and Illinois.
Documents released on Friday showed that the planned flights will transport about 100 migrants. They were scheduled for before 3 October but were halted or postponed. The contractor hired by Florida extended the window for the trips until 1 December, according to memos released by the state transportation department.
Asked why the lights were postponed, DeSantis’ communications director, Taryn Fenske, said Florida had been busy dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
“While Florida has had all hands on deck responding to our catastrophic hurricane, the immigration relocation program remains active,“ Fenske said.
The flights would be a follow-up to 14 September flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, that carried 49 mostly Venezuelan migrants to the island where the former president Barack Obama owns a home. Local officials were not told in advance that the migrants were coming.
DeSantis claimed responsibility for the flights as part of a campaign to focus attention on what he has called the Biden administration’s failed border policies. He was joining the Republican Texas governor, Greg Abbott, in sending migrants to Democratic strongholds without advance warning.
DeSantis is also thought likely to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
Earlier this year, the Florida legislature approved a $12m budget item to relocate people from Florida to another location. The money came from interest earned from federal funds given to Florida under the American Rescue Plan, legislation passed to help states recover from the Covid pandemic.
While the migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard originated in Texas, the charter plane carrying them made a stop in Florida. DeSantis has said that the migrants’ intention was to come to Florida.
The documents released on Friday gave no details of how migrants were recruited in San Antonio for the Martha Vineyard flights or who was hired to conduct that part of the operation.
The Martha’s Vineyard flight has also spawned lawsuits accusing Florida of lying to the migrants to get them to agree to the flights.
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