The Florida State Legislature passed a law Friday expanding Gov. Ron DeSantis' practice of flying illegal immigrants to cities and states primarily controlled by Democrats.
The State House approved SB 6-B Friday by a vote of 77-34. The measure would create the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program, appropriating $10 million to transport illegal migrants to other places wthin the U.S.
The bill, which first passed the State Senate Wednesday 27-12, now goes to DeSantis to sign into law.
"People are sick of having an open border with no rule of law in this country," the Washington Examiner quoted DeSantis as saying at a news conference last week. "We can just sit here and do nothing about it, or we can actually stand up and say, 'Whatever tools we have at our disposal, we are going to be using.'"
In September 2022, DeSantis had two planes carrying 50 illegal migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, drawing national attention to the border crisis and raising the ire of Democrats in liberal cities and communities suddenly being prodded to provide shelterr and other necessities to the undocumented, the New York Times reported at the time.
Florida was following an example set by other Republican-controlled border states, l;ike Texas, that have been transporting illegal immigrants to Dem-led venues like New York City and Washington, D.C.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who complained that the surge of more than 40,000 illegals entering his city was a drain on resources, visited the border in January, calling for better "coordination."
"Our cities are being undermined. And we don't deserve this. Migrants don't deserve this. And the people who live in the cities don't deserve this," the Associated Press reported Adams said as he wrapped up a weekend visit to El Paso on Jan. 16. "We expect more from our national leaders to address this issue in a real way."
Former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called out President Joe Biden and his administration for keeping the border open without having a plan to deal with the record number of illegal crossings in the last two years.
"It was a mistake for President Biden to open the border without having a plan to handle the tremendous flow of people," the New York Post reported Cuomo saying in his latest "Matter of Fact" podcast. "President Biden had said he would do it in the campaign — but you can't change a policy unless you have the program in place to manage the change."
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