JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he’s looking into ways to stop planes with migrants from landing in Florida.
His office said a 24-year-old man from Honduras posed as a teenager at the border and was put on a flight to Jacksonville back in August. That man, Yery Noel Medina-Ulloa, is now accused of killing a father of four in Arlington last month.
There are now lots of questions about these flights.
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News4Jax asked the governor about it on Wednesday when he held a news conference at a Jacksonville charter school.
His office said 78 flights have come to Florida from the southern border.
“One of the things concerning to me, look you can’t prove any of this stuff, they were bringing flights in May and June we found out here. Why was that? Jacksonville, you saw what they had to deal with some of the COVID stuff. Why? Why not let folks alone? There’s absolutely, we’re going to have action on a wide variety of fronts,” DeSantis said.
The federal government controls the airspace so DeSantis said he’s looking at ways to block charter planes from landing. He says he’s also considering filing a lawsuit.
When News4Jax asked federal officials about the flights into the Florida, the Department of Health and Human Services referenced the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and responded in a statement that reads in part:
“It is our legal responsibility to safely care for unaccompanied children until they can be swiftly unified with a parent or a vetted sponsor. As part of the unification process, ORR facilitates travel for the children in ORR’s care to their sponsors or other care providers in the most expeditious way. ORR only cares for Unaccompanied Children 17 years of age and younger, not adults or families.”
What remains unknown is the origin of the passengers, their ages, or a total count of the number that have arrived in Florida. Attorney General Ashley Moody is pursuing legal action to put a stop to migrants relocation to the Sunshine State.
“We brought a suit against this administration because they’re blatantly failing to follow the law,” Moody said. “Since I took office, I’ve been saying we need to focus on shoring up weaknesses in our communities that may be leading to crime.”
News4Jax has requested documentation, flight logs, and any pertinent reports in the possession of the Office of Public Safety, which may also include the ages of the passengers arriving on the flights in question to Jacksonville. DeSantis said Wednesday that the federal government controls the airspace, and he says he’s looking at ways to block charter planes from landing.