Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Friday, activating the National Guard to help with an influx of migrants arriving by boat on Florida’s coast.
In response to the Biden administration’s alleged inability to manage a record number of migrants attempting to cross the southern border into the U.S. and anticipating a wave of migrant arrivals, DeSantis authorized state agencies to take emergency response measures Jan. 6, according to the order.
The governor also authorized the National Guard to deploy “as needed, to deal with this emergency,” given that “the migration of unauthorized aliens to the State of Florida is likely to constitute a major disaster.”
“The lawlessness at the Southwest Border continues unabated and the Biden Administration has repeatedly demonstrated its ineptitude at managing the crisis it created,” the order stated. As a result, an increasing number of illegal migrants are seeking entry to the U.S.
At least 345 unauthorized persons entered Florida on Jan. 3 and Jan. 5, and the state has identified multiple vessels likely to contain illegal migrants destined for Florida’s shores, the order stated. From August 2022 to January 2023, officials indicted more than 8,000 migrants in the waters around Florida’s peninsula.
Customs and Border Patrol has logged a record number of migrant encounters at all U.S. borders in the first two months of fiscal year 2023, which began in October, including 460,000 at the southern border alone.
Nearly 500 illegal migrants docked in the Florida Keys over New Year’s weekend, forcing a park in the region to shut down as Florida law enforcement struggled to apprehend all of the arrivals. Border Patrol reportedly told local police they did not have sufficient federal resources to respond, according to a Facebook post by Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay’s office.
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