Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan
Florida misunderstands, says Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan. DHS isn’t labeling any city or county in the Sunshine State a sanctuary city and that’s certainly not why the agency is moving migrants in.
“Our transportation is based on necessity and capacity to process safely, so that’s what we’re doing,” McAleenan said Sunday morning on CBS’s “Face The Nation” when asked if Florida was being picked on because it has cities that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“So, no is the answer to the question?” “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked.
“Correct,” McAleenan responded.
Not that some migrants won’t end up in sanctuary cities, he said.
“We have sent flights to California, California is a sanctuary state by law, so that’s technically correct,” he explained.
The issue of transporting migrants that need to be processed blew up last week when Florida officials — all of them Donald Trump loyalists and all of them unhappy with any migrant influx — announced DHS would be flying hundreds of migrants to two counties in the state, Broward and Palm Beach, both Democratic strongholds. Federal officials on Saturday fired back there was no such plan in place.
“Immigrants that are released in the U.S. are going to sanctuary cities because that’s a magnet, they’re providing incentive to come live in those areas.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke with the president, said the governor’s spokeswoman, Helen Ferre. “President Trump said Saturday he didn’t approve of such a plan and would not authorize it,” she said. “Gov. DeSantis was never notified by federal authorities that such a plan was in place.”
West Palm Beach TV station WPTV reported Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s calming statement Saturday: “Because of everybody’s efforts, we are able to stop what had appeared to be a crisis for our community.”
However, a Customs and Border Patrol official has confirmed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement aircraft were flying people from areas in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to San Diego and moving individuals by bus into other areas.