Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is responding after new data from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) found nearly 326,000 migrants have been flown from overseas to Florida through a parole program expanded by the Biden administration.
The migrant-flight program is paid for by taxpayers which the Biden administration announced in January 2023 as an expanded parole process for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Colombians modeled after the October 2022 parole expansion for Venezuelans and Ukrainians. National Review reports that under this program, at least 386,000 migrants have been flown into U.S. airports, and at least 326,000 of them landed into Florida, CIS found by studying public information on the U.S. customers and border protection’s website.
“They don’t tell us anytime somebody comes in,” DeSantis said. “We can’t verify that, they don’t give us information on it, we have not seen though large numbers in our communities all of the sudden.”
“It may be the case [Biden] is bringing people in under this illegal parole program, and then they’re migrating to sanctuary jurisdictions,” he added. “We’re not a sanctuary state. We don’t have sanctuary cities. We’ve took action to where you’re not getting a driver’s license. You’re not getting ID cards.”
“This early evidence suggests that a great many of these inadmissible alien passengers, probably a majority, initially land at international airports in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida. In fact, Florida turns out to be the top landing and U.S. customs processing zone for this direct-flights parole-and-release program, tallying at nearly 326,000 of the initial arrivals from inception through February,” observed CIS senior national security fellow Todd Bensman in a post explaining the migrant flight data.
“This is but one of the many examples of how Biden’s egregious and unlawful immigration policies are disproportionately taxing the resources of certain states. As with Biden’s other unlawful policies, we will continue to fight the CHNV program in court,” Florida attorney general Ashley Moody (R) said in a statement provided to National Review
“The federal government is encouraging illegal immigration and even aiding these individuals to enter the country. They’ve cloaked these secretive flights as a lawful parole program. The state of Florida is fighting back in Court to end this practice and stop the federal government’s illegal immigrant importation efforts,” DeSantis communications director Bryan Griffin told National Review.
National Review adds in its report that the Department of Homeland Security has published information about the expanded parole program and eligibility for up to 30,000 migrants from the selected countries. When the program reached its six-month anniversary in July, DHS disclosed that nearly 160,000 vetted individuals had arrived into the U.S. because of the program.
Additionally, the number of incoming migrant flights is potentially much higher because migrants could be arriving in international airports and transferring to domestic flights to end up in cities hours away from their initial landing spot, Bensman noted. The transfer flights would not be reflected in the data analyzed by CIS. The Biden administration has not released the airport locations for these flights and CIS is currently fighting them in court for the information.