Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) unloaded on Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), chairman of the House Democrats, for claiming on Tuesday that he and Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) were “behaving like human traffickers.”
Jeffries’ remarks came after DeSantis ignited a national media firestorm last week when he sent 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a rich liberal enclave off the coast of Massachusetts.
“The behavior of individuals like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott is radical, reckless, regressive and reprehensible,” Jeffries claimed during a press conference. “They should start behaving like governors and stop behaving like human traffickers. They are putting politics over people in the most egregious way possible.”
DeSantis fired back during a press conference Tuesday afternoon, saying, “When Biden is flying these people all over the fruited plain in the middle of the night, I didn’t hear a peep out of those people.”
“I didn’t hear a peep,” DeSantis continued. “I haven’t heard a peep about all the people that have been told by Biden you can just come in, and they’re going, they’re being abused by the cartels, they’re drowning in the Rio Grande. You had 50 that died in some shed in Texas. I heard no outrage about any of that. I haven’t heard outrage about all the fentanyl that’s come across the border that’s killing Americans in record numbers. I don’t hear outrage about the criminal aliens that have gotten through and have then victimized people — not only in Florida, but all throughout the country. I didn’t hear any outrage about that. The only thing I hear them getting upset about is you have 50 that end up in Martha’s Vineyard, then they get really upset.”
“And I’m sorry, those migrants were being treated horribly by Biden,” DeSantis continued. “They were hungry, homeless, they had no opportunity at all. State of Florida, it was volunteer, offered transport to sanctuary jurisdictions, because it’s our view that one, the border should be secured. And we want to have Biden reinstitute policies like Remain in Mexico and making sure that people aren’t overwhelming. But short of that, if you believe in open borders, then it’s the sanctuary jurisdictions that should have to bear the brunt of the open borders — so that’s what we’re doing. But what happened was, they were they were provided an ability to be in the most posh sanctuary jurisdiction maybe in the world.”
“And obviously, it’s sad that Martha’s Vineyard people deported them the next day; they could have absorbed this, they chose not to,” DeSantis added. “But what it shows is, if 50 was a burden on one of the richest places in our country, what about all these other communities that have been overrun with hundreds or thousands?”