Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to have no intention of stopping the flights transporting illegal immigrants to other Democratic states. The governor initially sent two planes of around 50 immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, to Martha’s Vineyard in September. Taryn Fenske, his communication director, has now said that additional flights would also take place but they were delayed because of Hurricane Ian recovery efforts.
Fenske wrote in an email that Florida was focused on the recovery efforts but that did not mean that the immigration relocation program was inactive.
On Friday a document was released that showed that the next flights from Florida carrying illegal immigrants to Delaware and Illinois had been scheduled for Oct. 3 and had cost $1 million.
The flights are part of DeSantis’ campaign effort which aims to criticize the administration’s work over the border crisis. In a statement last month, he had said that they had $12 million dedicated to the cause to protect the people of Florida.
The money in the legislature had been approved as part of the state budget, which Democrats had also voted in support of. This was also stated on the governor’s campaign press secretary’s Twitter account.
The Treasury Department’s inspector general also announced that they would be investigating DeSantis’ spending for the relocation of immigrants to determine whether funds had been improperly used.
