Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tore into the Biden administration over its relocation of illegal migrants to his there without notifying state officials or bothering to ask for permission to place them.
In his letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, DeSantis, a Republican seen as a leading GOP presidential contender in 2024 if former President Donald Trump doesn’t run, said putting illegal migrants in Florida undermines the state’s effort to ensure that “criminal aliens are not released back into our communities.”
DeSantis began by reminding Mayorkas he wrote to the DHS chief in April requesting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents take into custody illegal alien felons who were completing their sentences in his state, while also noting that he asked ICE to inform Florida state law enforcement officials when the agency released criminal aliens, but to no avail.
Instead, he wrote, DHS “appears to be hard at work resettling ever larger numbers of illegal aliens who have no lawful status under federal immigration law from the southwest border to Florida,” adding that the Biden administration does not appear interested at all in enforcing immigration laws in general.
“I ask that DHS immediately cease any further resettlement of illegal aliens in Florida and that the aliens instead be removed from the United States or resettled in states that support the administration’s continued flouting of our immigration laws,” DeSantis wrote.
“Floridians welcome responsible immigration that serves the interests of Florida and the American people, but we cannot abide the lawlessness that your department is aiding and abetting on the southwest border,” he continued.
DeSantis, who has clashed frequently with the Biden administration in the eight months since coming to power, added that 6,254 unaccompanied minors have also been released into his state.
The Sunshine State governor also railed at President Joe Biden for refusing to enforce all immigration laws duly enacted by Congress, as per his constitutional duty and oath.
“It is beyond reasonable dispute that this administration’s lawless policies are incentivizing mass illegal immigration to our country,” he wrote.
“The states, not the federal government, bear the brunt of this administration’s lawless immigration policies. The states hold the police powers in our system of government and are responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of our people, he continued.
“By releasing illegal aliens, including unaccompanied minors, into the United States on such a massive scale, the federal government is saddling states and local governments with the resulting health, financial, economic, and public safety costs.”
In a tweet last week, DeSantis also took aim at the president for attempting to reverse former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy after the U.S. Supreme Court deemed his executive order an unconstitutional violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.
“SCOTUS handed down yet another blow to the Biden Administration’s reckless border policies,” DeSantis tweeted.
“Reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy that Biden unlawfully rescinded will protect our communities and slow the influx of illegal aliens and illicit drugs at the southern border,” he added.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, has tussled with the administration over its immigration policies as his state became flooded with hundreds of thousands crossing illegally from Mexico since the beginning of the year.
Abbott has deployed extra state law enforcement officers and empowered his National Guard to make arrests of illegal crossers.
Syndicated with permission from USA Features News.