The Florida Legislature has passed and the governor signed a bill formalizing a controversial program to transport unauthorized migrants to other states under the authority of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management.
The state’s funding last year of a flight carrying migrants from Texas to Massachusetts through the Florida Department of Transportation led to multiple lawsuits filed against the program. The newly passed legislation, Senate Bill 6-B, will earmark $10 million to fund the effort “to facilitate the transport of inspected unauthorized aliens within the United States,” the state Legislature’s analysis of the bill states.
“Border patrol encounters and illegal entries into the United States are at an all-time high because Washington refuses to act,” Rep. John Snyder (R-Stuart), the sponsor of the House version of the bill, said in a prepared statement. “Florida will not allow the Biden administration’s failures to threaten the safety and well-being of our citizens. The Division of Emergency Management is well positioned to operate the Unauthorized Alien Transport Program to facilitate the voluntary transport of unauthorized migrants.”
The bill analysis contends that Border Patrol enforcement actions have increased threefold from fiscal year 2020 to 2021 and that encounters with “criminal non-citizens” have also spiked.
Afifa Khaliq, who chairs the Florida Immigrant Coalition’s board, sees the new program as detrimental to immigrants and the product of a rushed legislative process.
““While Floridians are struggling to afford food, housing and utilities, we are using valuable resources for human trafficking including people who haven’t even set foot in our state,” Khaliq said in a statement emailed to the Florida Record. “ I came to the U.S. in 2002 with my family, looking for safety. I lived the fear and concerns that come with migration. I think about the thousands of children and families that are just like my own family, who came here looking for safety and a better life.
The passage of the bill in the Republican Legislature was simply an effort by lawmakers to accommodate Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential ambitions, she said.