Florida steps up for Homeland Security challenging Biden administration negligence
It is no secret that under the Biden administration the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been negligent—perhaps criminally so—in enforcing America’s immigration laws and border security measures. In fact, Biden, through his own poorly chosen words, created the rush of illegal aliens crossing into the United States over the southern border.
There are many implications and dangers resulting from this, including the fact that there has been no quarantining of COVID cases, at least some people from terrorist watch lists have been apprehended, and illegal aliens have been surreptitiously transported into the interior of the U.S. by government agencies.
Governor DeSantis of Florida has elected not to take this dereliction of federal duties lying down. He has sent a scathing demand letter to Biden administration Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas detailing the administration’s negligence and malfeasance and enjoining DHS to cease and desist and provide full disclosure of what it has done so far.
More governors need to make these demands of the Biden administration as their policies are both unconstitutional and violations of federal criminal statutes. DeSantis notes that unlike other so-called sanctuary states, such as California, Florida has sought to cooperate closely with federal immigration and border enforcement authorities and has instructed its law enforcement agencies to do so.
Back in April, DeSantis wrote a letter to Mayorkas (which appears to have been ignored) asking DHS to remove illegal alien felons from Florida as soon as their prison sentences were completed. DeSantis pointed out that, unlike law enforcement agencies in many states and communities, Florida has cooperated fully with federal law enforcement by transporting illegal alien felons to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facilities per DHS’s request. But since Biden entered office, the feds have stopped enforcing their own immigration laws.
DeSantis further notes that DHS has taken to transporting illegal aliens from the southwest US border to Florida for resettlement with no documentation and without consulting state and local officials in any way. DeSantis clarifies that the Biden administration is in violation of its constitutional duty to enforce federal immigration laws.
In closing, DeSantis makes 9 specific demands of Mayorkas and the Biden DHS including:
- Provide Florida with the number of illegal aliens they have resettled into Florida
- Provide any information on whether illegal aliens brought to Florida were tested for COVID and if so, how many and which ones tested positive.
- Provide the names of any illegal aliens resettled into Florida who have previous US criminal records.
- Identify contractors who may be transporting illegal aliens to and within Florida on behalf of DHS.
- Provide assistance in the identification of illegal aliens brought into Florida who may be awaiting criminal prosecution.
It is of course outrageous that such a letter needs to be written, but DeSantis and his team did a masterful job crafting it pointing out the negligence and malfeasance of the Biden administration and putting them on notice that they are being held accountable to the extent that states can do so.
