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US House of Representatives Governor of Florida
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On September 14, 2022, Florida governor Ron DeSantis sent approximately 50 primarily Venezuelan asylum seekers by air from San Antonio, Texas, to the island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The incident and ones like it have caused a partisan divide across the US. President Joe Biden and other Democrats called it "a political stunt and inhumane", [1] [2] while Republicans such as Mitch McConnell "thought it was a good idea". [3]
Since April 2022, as a protest against President Joe Biden's actions and policies on US illegal immigration, Texas governor Greg Abbott and Arizona governor Doug Ducey have sent buses of refuge seekers to northern United States cities with a large presence of Democratic Party supporters. [4] According to DeSantis, the flights he arranged were to expose "liberal hypocrisy", [5] because people in Democratic northern cites "were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions", and when migrants arrived "they all of a sudden go berserk". [6] [7] DeSantis's office said the flights would "transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations" that can care for migrants "they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as 'sanctuary states' and support for the Biden Administration's open border policies." [7]
DeSantis asked the legislature for relocation money, saying the federal government made more than 70 flights of immigrants to Florida in 2021. [8] He budgeted $8 million and got $12 million from the Florida legislature in 2022, paid from interest on the $5.8 billion that Florida received from the American Rescue Plan. [9] The fund was earmarked, to "facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state [Florida] consistent with federal law". [9] According to the Associated Press, these migrants are legally permitted to remain in the United States while they pursue asylum. [10]
Some migrants were told, by a San Antonio woman named Perla Huerta, [12] [13] that their flights were going to Boston, Massachusetts, where they could get what NPR described as "expedited work papers". [14] A Boston Globe and Texas Tribune investigation found that a tall, blond woman approached migrants outside a San Antonio McDonald's. [15] One migrant contacted by the papers said she promised "three months of rent, work, and said they were going to put our papers in order." [15] She gave them meals and four nights in a San Antonio hotel before their flights left, and offered one migrant $200 to recruit others to board the flights. [15] Some migrants turned down the offer. [15] Perla is an ex-Army combat medic. [13]
One of the two flights that Florida governor DeSantis chartered departed from San Antonio stopped in Florida, stopped again in South Carolina, and landed on Martha's Vineyard. The second flight similarly left San Antonio, stopped in Florida, stopped again in Charlotte, North Carolina, and finally landed on Martha's Vineyard. [14] DeSantis hired Vertol Systems for the flights, who then subcontracted Ultimate JetCharters, based in Ohio. [16] Additional Ultimate JetCharters flights scheduled to fly migrants from Texas to Delaware were canceled. [16]
Initially, the migrants stayed at a St. Andrew's Episcopal Church shelter on Martha's Vineyard. [14] [17] The woman who runs the shelter told NPR, "Everything from beds to food to clothing to toothbrushes, toothpaste, blankets, sheets. I mean, we had some of it ... but we did not have the numbers that we needed." High-school Spanish students assisted as translators. [14] Some migrants said they were promised jobs on Martha's Vineyard; when they arrived, peak employment season was over, and part-time residents were leaving. [18] Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker then helped them voluntarily relocate by ferry to Joint Base Cape Cod where support services existed. [19] [20]
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, a Democrat, launched an investigation into the incident; Salazar alleged that a Venezuelan migrant was paid to recruit 50 migrants from a resource center in San Antonio, the county seat of Bexar County, to travel to Florida and eventually Martha's Vineyard. [21] Governor DeSantis responded to the allegations, saying the migrants were not misled: "They all signed consent forms to go and then the vendor that is doing this for Florida provided them with a packet that had a map of Martha's Vineyard, it has the number for different services that are on Martha's Vineyard." [21]
On October 13, 2022 Salazar signed certifications that the immigrants were victims of a crime, which qualified them for U visas. [22]
On September 20, 2022, the 50 migrants filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis and Florida's secretary of transportation in a Massachusetts federal trial court, arguing that the Florida governor and his administration "manipulated [the migrants], stripped them of their dignity, deprived them of their liberty, bodily autonomy, due process and equal protection under the law, and impermissibly interfered with the Federal Government’s exclusive control over immigration in furtherance of an unlawful goal and a personal political agenda". The suit ultimately seeks to have the judge declare DeSantis's actions unconstitutional and prohibit Florida from fraudulently transporting migrants across state lines. [23]
DeSantis's spokesperson responded by saying the migrants had all signed a consent form, and called the lawsuit "political theater" by "opportunistic activists" at the expense of illegal immigrants. He added: "If these activists spent even a fraction of this time and effort at the border, perhaps some accountability would be brought to the Biden Administration's reckless border policies that entice illegal immigrants to make dangerous and often lethal journeys through Central America and put their lives in the hands of cartels and Coyotes." [24]
The allegations were initially dismissed in April 2024 on the ground that only the company for the airlift was liable. The lawsuit against Florida was revamped in July 2024. DeSantis spokesperson rejected the allegations again in September 2024. [25]
Democrats objected to the airlift, and Biden called it "a political stunt and inhumane". [1] [2] Many Republicans supported the move, and Mitch McConnell "thought it was a good idea". [3]
Journalists writing in outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post discussed connections between the airlift and the Reverse Freedom Rides of 1962, in which White segregationists misled Black Southerners and bused them to northern cities and towns, including one near Martha's Vineyard. [26] [27]
San Antonio, officially the City of San Antonio, is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio, the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 2.6 million people in the 2020 US census. It is the most populous city in and the county seat of Bexar County. The city is the seventh-most populous in the United States, the second-largest in the Southern United States, and the second-most populous in Texas after Houston.
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Island. It is the 58th largest island in the U.S., with a land area of about 96 square miles (250 km2), and the third-largest on the East Coast, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island. Martha's Vineyard constitutes the bulk of Dukes County, Massachusetts, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and the island of Nomans Land.
Wilson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 49,753. Its county seat is Floresville. The county is named after James Charles Wilson. Wilson County is part of the San Antonio–New Braunfels, Texas, metropolitan statistical area.
Bexar County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in South Texas and its county seat is San Antonio.
Selma is a city in Bexar, Comal, and Guadalupe counties in Texas, United States. It is part of the San Antonio metropolitan statistical area. Its population was 10,952 at the 2020 census, up from 5,540 at the 2010 census. Selma was settled by German and Polish immigrants in the mid-1800s.
Gregory Wayne Abbott is an American politician, attorney, and jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015 and as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001.
The San Antonio River is a major waterway that originates in central Texas in a cluster of springs in midtown San Antonio, about 4 miles north of downtown, and follows a roughly southeastern path through the state. It eventually feeds into the Guadalupe River about 10 miles from San Antonio Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The river is 240 miles long and crosses five counties: Bexar, Goliad, Karnes, Refugio, and Wilson.
Reverse Freedom Rides were attempts in 1962 by segregationists in the Southern United States to send African Americans from southern cities to mostly northern, and some western, cities by bus. They were given free one-way bus tickets and were promised guaranteed high-paying jobs and free housing in an attempt to lure African Americans. In reality, there was no guaranteed free housing or jobs waiting for them. Though some of those arriving were able to find work, most could not.
Ultimate Jet, formerly Ultimate Jet Charters, is a private jet charter charter airline based in North Canton, Ohio It is the operating name of Ultimate Jetcharters LLC, an FAR Part 135 air charter carrier. Ultimate Jet currently operates chartered passenger flights with their growing fleet of Citation X and Embraer ERJ135 aircraft. Ultimate Jet previously operated public charter flights on a published schedule, serving key business routes from Cincinnati Municipal Lunken Airport that were reduced by Delta Air Lines and Comair. The airline suspended schedule service operations from late 2020 to mid 2021 and again from December 16, 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business travel.
Ronald Dion DeSantis is an American politician serving since 2019 as the 46th governor of Florida. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from Florida's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2018. DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, withdrawing his candidacy in January 2024.
Canarian Americans are Americans whose ancestors came from the Canary Islands, Spain. They can trace their ancestry to settlers and immigrants who have emigrated since the 16th century to the present-day United States. Most of them are descendants of settlers who immigrated to Spanish colonies in the South of the modern US during the 18th century. The Canarians were among the first settlers of the modern United States; the first Canarians migrated to modern Florida in 1569, and were followed by others coming to La Florida, Texas and Louisiana.
The 2022 United States elections were held on November 8, 2022, with the exception of absentee balloting. During this U.S. midterm election, which occurred during the term of incumbent president Joe Biden of the Democratic Party, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate were contested to determine the 118th United States Congress. Thirty-nine state and territorial U.S. gubernatorial elections, as well as numerous state and local elections, were also contested. This was the first election affected by the 2022 redistricting that followed the 2020 census. The Republican Party ended unified Democratic control of Congress and the presidency by winning a majority in the House of Representatives while Democrats expanded their Senate majority.
Ronald Adrian Nirenberg is an American politician who is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Prior to his election, Nirenberg served as a member of the San Antonio City Council for District 8 for two terms.
The political positions of Ron DeSantis have been recorded from his 2012 election to the United States House of Representatives and his tenure as representative, the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida, and during his tenure as governor of Florida. DeSantis is considered a conservative Republican.
The 2024 United States presidential election in Florida was held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, as part of the 2024 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia will participate. Florida voters will choose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote. The state of Florida has 30 electoral votes in the Electoral College, following reapportionment due to the 2020 United States census in which the state gained a seat.
Operation Lone Star (OLS) is a joint operation between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Military Department along the United States–Mexico border in southern Texas. The operation started in 2021 and is ongoing. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the operation is intended to counter a rise in illegal immigration, the illegal drug trade, and human smuggling. Between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2021, migrant apprehensions had risen 278% along the US–Mexico border. According to the governor's office, OLS has resulted in 513,700 migrant apprehensions, 44,000 criminal arrests, and 489 million doses of fentanyl seized. As of April 2022, OLS was spending approximately $2.5 million per week and was expected to cost approximately $2 billion per year. Approximately 10,000 National Guard members were deployed in support of OLS at the height of the operation, with around 6,000 deployed as of November 2022. One year after the start of Operation Lone Star, Texas saw a 9% increase in migrant encounters along its border with Mexico, compared to a 62% increase in Arizona, California, and New Mexico along their respective borders with Mexico. As of June 2024, the Department of Public Safety has estimated a 74% drop in illegal border crossings since the start of OLS.
On June 27, 2022, 53 migrants were found dead in and around a tractor-trailer near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The deaths, caused by heat exposure and asphyxiation, reportedly occurred during an apparent illegal migrant smuggling attempt across the U.S.–Mexico border. It is the deadliest smuggling incident of its kind in United States history.
Ron DeSantis has served as the 46th governor of Florida since January 8, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. As governor, DeSantis resisted taking many of the measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 that various other state governments implemented, such as face-mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and vaccination requirements. During the pandemic, Florida experienced above-average economic growth. DeSantis cut state-government spending, which, combined with federal stimulus payments and high sales-tax revenue, led to the largest budget surplus in Florida history. He engaged in recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole, and oversaw the passage of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. He was reelected in a landslide in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election; his 19.4% margin of victory over Charlie Crist was the state's largest in 40 years. He has generally governed as a conservative.
The following is a list of events of the year 2022 in Florida.
