The Florida lieutenant governor’s suggestion that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis would bus Cuban migrants to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware has fired up Democrats as voters head to the polls for primaries Tuesday.
Democratic gubernatorial candidates Rep. Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, as well as immigrant advocates, pounced on Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez for her comment in a radio interview that DeSantis “is going to send [migrants], quite frankly, to the state of Delaware.”
Leaders from the Florida Immigrant Coalition, a statewide coalition of more than 65 organizations that advocates the fair treatment of all residents, criticized the remarks, given Nunez’s father was a Cuban exile.
“The Lieutenant Governor just said the quiet part out loud. Her party counts on the support of Cuban American voters, all the while they plot against the safety and well being of their fellow Cubans who are trying to seek the opportunities that will enable their families to thrive here too,” FLIC Co-Executive Director Isabel Vinent said in a statement.
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“If Lieutenant Governor Nuñez is Cuban herself and this is how she talks about Cuban migrants, I can only imagine what she says about migrants from Haiti such as my own family!” FLIC Policy and Politics Director David Metellus said in a statement. “We hope Cuban-Americans join us and realize that these are not their friends!”
The interview in question aired on South Florida radio station WURN and hit on how the DeSantis administration would respond to Cuban migrants who had come across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally and then traveled to Florida upon release and was not directed at Cuban migrants who sail to Florida and are apprehended off the coast.
“What she said was cruel. She needs to either resign, apologize, and certainly, our governor needs to condemn these actions,” Fried told reporters Monday.
“Gov. DeSantis’s proposal to forcibly transport Cuban refugees out of Florida is reckless, inhumane and a betrayal of our deepest values as Americans,” wrote Crist, the former governor from 2007 to 2011, in a post on Twitter. “They deserve better than to be treated as his political pawns to curry favor with the extremist base of the Republican Party.”
DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw has defended Nunez from the attacks.
“[Nunez] clearly said that those who come illegally should be transported out of Florida, no matter where they came from,” Pushaw said in a post on Twitter. “If someone came to Miami on a raft from Cuba to escape communist repression, that person is legal [because they’re a] refugee. This isn’t hard to understand.”
Southern border states Texas and Arizona began providing state-funded buses to transport migrants to New York City and Washington, D.C., earlier this year. Since then, thousands of migrants have opted to take buses to the East Coast, often to places where they have friends or family.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) was the first to implement the busing program and has irked Democratic mayors up north who said the cities cannot handle the couple hundred people being dropped off each day. Texas and Arizona are seeing roughly 4,000 people released onto the streets in their border communities daily in recent weeks.
DeSantis’s busing of migrants to Delaware would compete with Abbott, who is running for a third term this November. Both are considered to be contenders for president in 2024 if they can edge out former President Donald Trump for the nomination.
The support of Cubans is critical to Republicans in Florida. Pew Research found Cuban Americans affiliate with the Republican Party by a 20-point margin, making them a key demographic to appeal to.
This last year, record-high numbers of Cubans and Haitians have attempted to cross the southern land border illegally, while others are increasingly taking to the sea. More than 170,000 people from Cuba and Haiti have attempted to cross the southern land border since the start of the federal government’s 2022 year last October through June, according to government data. The 170,000 encounters are 10 times more than all of 2020 and represent the highest-ever number of Cubans and Haitians seeking refuge in the United States.
The Coast Guard encounters migrants packed into shoddy vessels in such places as the Florida Keys, South Beach in Miami, and off the Puerto Rico coast daily. Others who made landfall or swam ashore are taken into custody by Border Patrol.
Since the start of the federal government’s fiscal year last October, the Coast Guard crews deployed to the southeastern coast of Florida and waters around Haiti and Puerto Rico have intercepted more than 10,000 people attempting to enter the U.S. illegally by boat. Roughly 3,400 were from Cuba, and 6,100 were from Haiti — four times more Haitian migrants than the previous 12-month record.
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The Coast Guard repatriated the more than 10,000 people it interdicted and does not arrest or detain migrants. As a military entity, it is not responsible or able to enforce immigration laws. Migrants have not illegally entered the U.S. if they are encountered in the water. Coast Guard will shelter those it picks up from boats on one of its large cutters, or ships, then transport them back to Haiti or Cuba.
Border Patrol agents who apprehend migrants on land will bring them into custody. The Cuban government has refused to take back its citizens under removal procedures, allowing those who make it to largely avoid being deported, while Cuban migrants encountered at sea will be returned by the Coast Guard.
