The governor of the US state of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has accused the Administration of the president, Joe Biden, of clandestinely chartering planes with migrants to transfer them from the border with Mexico.
As the Republican politician has explained, the authorities would be carrying out these actions “in the heat of the night” and without being seen, although government sources have indicated in statements to the BBC television network that local authorities have previously been notified of these types of transfers – which were also common during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
“This is what happens with flights. There are no notifications for the state of Florida. They are done in the middle of the night, and that is clandestine,” DeSantis said during a press conference in which he announced that the state has filed a lawsuit against the Government.
However, CNN has been able to verify that some of these flights – recorded in Jacksonville – have taken place during the last six months during the day, while another fifteen have occurred at night due to logistical issues.
The Department of Health and Human Services schedules these flights for some of the migrants detained at the border with Mexico. In a letter to Biden, five Florida Republican MPs voiced similar concerns and spoke of “secret flights in the middle of the night to move defenseless migrants.”
However, the Government has stressed that the Republicans are trying to attack the Administration taking into account a practice that has been carried out for years during various administrations. The Florida authorities themselves have thus presented a list that includes some 70 flights organized by the federal government to transfer migrants to Jacksonville between April and October.
A former senior Health Department official who worked for the Trump Administration has confirmed that these flights also occurred then and are “legitimate.” “It is difficult to say that there is something wrong either at night or during the day,” said Mark Greenberg of the Department.
