The sending of two groups of undocumented immigrants from Florida to Massachusetts by Governor Ron DeSantis has provoked a strong reaction in the Venezuelan, Colombian and Nicaraguan communities. The media related to the Cubans have used to maintain a deathly silence.
Basically, these communities consider that the gesture of DeSantis and the subsequent events “it was all a political stunt”, not support for the undocumented.
“They felt like they were finally going to be able to live the American dream. They did not know that they were going to be sent to an island of millionaires. They can’t stay there. It was all a political stunt,” said Juan Correa Villalonga, 34, a Sunrise resident who fled Venezuela with his family at age 11.
Correa Villalonga is an extraordinary case in migratory terms. He was deported a few years ago, but managed to return to the United States. “We feel cheated. We sat down at the table with DeSantis and he told us that he would support immigrant communities. We feel used and manipulated, ”he said in statements to the ABC network.
When the news broke, some South Floridians praised the governor on social media. Jim Naugle, the former mayor of Fort Lauderdale, referred to him on Twitter as a “brilliant” leader, saying states like Florida take in more immigrants than their fair share.
“I think it’s brilliant,” said Naugle, a conservative Democrat. “They have great resources up there. I think you’ll love Martha’s Vineyard. The undocumented are a huge burden for Florida. I believe that [DeSantis] he is standing up for Floridians.”
But Raiza Perrault, a Hollywood resident born in Venezuela, thinks differently. She “she chartered two planes to take them to Martha’s Vineyard. Imagine arriving here and then being put on a plane without being told where you are going. Who in her right mind would do such a thing? She shows no compassion in treating people that way and sending them somewhere else.”
“These measures are morally repulsive,” said Samuel Vilchez Santiago, state director of the American Business Immigration Coalition Action.
What’s more, “On the campaign trail, Governor DeSantis caters to communities like mine that have been traumatized by political persecution and violence. Yet from an official standpoint his administration continually throws our communities under the bus in its quest for power. This is a new casualty and a betrayal of our communities,” he added.
Sending the undocumented to states under Democratic control is a plan by the Republican governors to combat the immigration policy of President Joe Biden, but it ignores the immigration laws that consider the transfer of undocumented immigrants from one state to another a crime.
On the other hand, President Biden has been involved in this debate this Tuesday when, in an aside with a group of reporters from the White House, he established that the deportation of Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to their countries of origin It’s not a good idea.
For the president, the situation on the border is totally different from that of Donald Trump’s days in the White House, since “fewer migrants arrive from Central America and Mexico.”
“Now I am attentive to Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. The possibility of sending them back to those countries is not rational,” the president said. “We are working with Mexico and with other countries to see if we can stop the flow [migratorio]”.
It is unclear whether the statement refers to Cubans who are being deported by being intercepted by sea.
When consulted on the matter, two Miami attorneys told OnCuba that one thing has nothing to do with the other because these returns are based on an agreement with the Cuban government that does not affect those who show up at the border with Mexico.
