Ron DeSantis breaks his silence on funding “very effective” migrant flights from Texas to Sacramento

Ron DeSantis has broken his silence on funding migrant flights from Texas to Sacramento, arguing that states like California and New York should bear the brunt of “open borders.”

On Tuesday, his team admitted helping transport migrants from Texas to Sacramento and released footage of them being merrily transported on a private jet.

During a trip to the southern border on Wednesday, the presidential candidate said he would continue to support states that would not offer sanctuary to migrants.

DeSantis said, “If there is a policy that has an open border, then I think the protected area courts should be the ones who have to endure that.”

“We’re not a Florida getaway, we know people want to come, and the more distractions we can get before we even have to get there is good for our state.”

Gov. DeSantis, pictured here last week, said he would continue to support states that would not provide a safe haven for migrants.

Migrants of different nationalities rest at a makeshift camp in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, May 22, 2023

He continued, “California has a big budget deficit and we have a big budget surplus, so we can support the police and help Texas, for example.”

“When a Texas sheriff asks for our assistance, we consider it an American problem. We don’t just see it as a Texas problem. We will send resources to Texas to do this if they need transportation.’ We want to help with that.’

The Florida Division of Emergency Management released footage of migrants being transported on a private jet, listening to music, signing waivers and appearing to be having fun.

“We made it to California,” said one suspected migrant in a selfie video that showed behind him the turboprop De Havilland plane he and the others arrived in.

“Thank God, thank God very much,” he said in Spanish while standing on the tarmac at Sacramento Executive Airport.

In an accompanying statement, Alecia Collins, the department’s communications director, said the move was amicable. “As you can see from this video, Florida’s voluntary resettlement is just that — voluntary,” she wrote.

It’s not exactly clear who took the videos and pictures, but some appear to have been taken by the alleged migrants themselves.

None of the people shown in the video could be identified and the video did not contain a description.

Other parts show the alleged migrants cheering in the back of a bus, singing along to music and making peace signs with their hands.

In part of the video, a man films himself getting off a plane and giving thanks to God while standing on the tarmac of what appears to be Sacramento Executive Airport

In a statement accompanying the footage, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said the relocation was voluntary

California officials said Tuesday the migrants’ transportation was facilitated by Vertol Systems Company

Once, as they appear to be gathering in a meeting room, they are asked in Spanish, “Have you ever felt that you were mistreated?”

“No, they treated us very well,” one person replied.

The Florida governor’s transport of about three dozen migrants to California is the latest move in which asylum-seekers who entered through the southern border are being relocated north to Democrat-run “sanctuary cities.”

California, a shelter state, is investigating a “state-sanctioned kidnapping” after the 16 migrants were dropped without “warning” on the doorstep of a Sacramento church.

California officials said Tuesday the migrants’ transportation was facilitated by Vertol Systems Company, a private company that also organized planeloads of Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last year.

More than a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian migrants who entered the US via Texas were transported by private plane to Sacramento, California and left outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento pictured

California Gov. Newsom tweeted to Ron DeSantis Monday, saying, “You pathetic little man.”

The migrants, mostly from Venezuela but also from Colombia, arrived in Sacramento, the capital of California, on two flights — the first carrying 16 people on Friday and another carrying 20 people on Monday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom attacked DeSantis Monday, calling him a “pathetic little man” and threatening on Twitter to press charges of kidnapping against his government.

He said he was working with the California Department of Justice to determine whether staging the flights was criminal.

In Tuesday’s statement, Florida’s Department of Emergency Management indicated that the California officials’ criticism was unfair.

“From left-leaning mayors in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, the resettlement of those illegally crossing the United States border is nothing new,” the statement said.

“But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal immigrants to a city of refuge, it’s a bogus detention and kidnapping.”