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DeSantis Targeting Contractors ‘Facilitating’ Biden’s ‘Reckless Border Policies’

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking a different tactic in dealing with the Biden administration continuing to deposit illegal aliens in his state without permission and without notifying state authorities.

In short, DeSantis is set to target entities that are helping Biden’s Department of Homeland Security facilitate the transfers.

“Any of these contractors that are facilitating Biden’s illegal policies by bringing people into Florida — oftentimes flying in at two o’clock in the morning with no notice to the state — anyone who’s doing that forfeits the ability to have contracts with state and local government in the state of Florida,” DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson Friday evening.

“And they’re going to be responsible for providing restitution to the state of Florida for every single person that they bring, because when they dump somebody, a lot of costs end up being borne by the state in the future whether, that’s education health care whether that’s the criminal justice system,” the GOP governor continued.

The “costs” have included lost Floridian lives, such as 46-year-old Francisco Javier Cuellar, who was allegedly killed by a 24-year-old illegal alien who pretended to be an unaccompanied minor so he could remain in the U.S.

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“So we’re very concerned about doing that, and we want to basically say, this is not the right decision to be making to be facilitating what is basically an illegal human smuggling operation,” DeSantis noted further, adding that non-profits are going to be looked at as well as contractors.

“We’re not going to be giving licenses to [non-profits] who are actively helping Biden do this. And so we want people focusing on our own citizens. A lot of people do a lot of great work. We’ve got a lot of people in our state that need help, and we can’t just have people who are from foreign countries displacing the needs of our own people,” he said.

All of this promoted Carlson to ask if DeSantis was concerned his actions would “enrage” the Biden administration and lead to legal blowback.

“We’re already in legal conflict with them,” the governor said.

“I will say, they have already switched from what they had been doing as a result of our lawsuit. They had been giving people a notice to report. You come illegally, they give you a sheet of paper, they say, hey, call us and schedule a hearing sometime with no consequences. Well, obviously that is toothless,” DeSantis said.

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“They now have shifted to doing what’s called the notice to appear,” he said, noting that a failed appearance makes the illegal migrant automatically eligible for deportation.

That said, the governor doesn’t believe the Biden administration will take any action, though he still believes it’s important for states to push back on the administration “if they’re not doing their job, if they’re forfeiting their responsibilities.”

“You can’t just run away from that and say you’re not going to do nothing. The easiest thing for me to do would just be to put out tweets, put out press releases, you know, complain about it. But I think people want to say let’s do something about it, so I think we’re going to have some success,” he said.

“I think there’ll obviously be some things we’re going to have to overcome in the courts or whatnot, but that’s fine. I’d rather be fighting to get things done than to just forfeit before we even play the game,” the governor concluded.