On Friday, Florida GOP governor Ron DeSantis revealed that officers of the state had interdicted suspected illegal aliens fleeing Haiti on February 29.
The boat interdicted by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, was 42 feet long, contained five unaccompanied children, and was operated by a U.S. citizen, Florida’s Voice reported, adding that according to authorities, the suspects were part of a “human smuggling operation,” and that the individuals were “lying prone on the deck of the boat.”
“Just recently, within the last couple of weeks, and this will be made public later today, our Florida Fish and Wildlife officers interdicted a vessel that had 25 illegal immigrants, potential illegal immigrants, from Haiti,” DeSantis announced.
“In their boat, in their vessel, they had firearms, they had drugs, they had night vision gear and they were boating very recklessly, which would potentially endanger other folks. So that vessel was interdicted near the Sebastian Inlet, and those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation,” he stated.
“So our folks have been doing this before we augmented this and they’re going to continue to do it, and we’ve got an incredible amount of resources that are now on display to be able to prevent,” he continued. “Now, what’s different today than maybe in the past? Well, part of it is we have more resources that the state has been willing to put up.”
He turned to the failure of the Biden administration to do its job: “And this is not really our responsibility; this is the federal government’s responsibility. Coast Guard does by and large a good job but they’re undermanned; they’re under-resourced, so we’re filling those gaps.”
“I think one difference now is — and we see this with our folks that we have at the border — you have people coming across the southern border from all over the world, Haitians can get to the United States easier by flying to Mexico and walking across the border,” he explained. “And so I anticipate, if flights resume, that will likely be where a lot of those folks who are trying to flee (Haiti), if they want to come to the United States they’re probably going to go to Mexico and then come in through the border knowing that Biden will just let everybody in.”
BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis announces Florida agents have interdicted a vessel that had 25 suspected illegal aliens from Haiti
"They had firearms, they had drugs […] That vessel was interdicted [and] those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation." pic.twitter.com/LIRBuEwFiO
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) March 15, 2024