The Florida governor predicted “many more” flights would carry Americans out of Haiti.
People march as tires burn during a protest against insecurity, on Aug. 7, 2023, near the Prime Minister’s official house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. | AFP via Getty Images
MIAMI — Amid ongoing unrest in Haiti, Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered the state to transport Floridians stranded in the island nation back to the state, with the first flight landing in Orlando on Wednesday night.
DeSantis offered the flights to Floridians after gang-fueled violence forced airport closures in Haiti. DeSantis said some people who asked to be rescued had gone to Haiti to help.
The governor, speaking at a press conference in Central Florida, predicted “many flights” would follow the Wednesday transport, which included children among the 14 passengers.
“We are willing to dedicate the resources, we understand this is important, we understand that there’s people that are really in danger right now that are our fellow Floridians,” DeSantis said.
The trips are similar to those DeSantis orchestrated for Americans after Hamas’ attack on Israel, though he said the flights from Haiti were “more challenging,” in part because the situation in Haiti is chaotic and Israel helped coordinate some of the flights out of the Middle East.
People being transported out of Haiti by Florida’s government won’t be charged for the flights, DeSantis said, and it’ll only be offered to U.S. citizens. DeSantis emphasized that Florida wouldn’t be flying anyone out that “doesn’t belong here.”
DeSantis on Tuesday warned that he wouldn’t allow undocumented Haitian migrants to enter Florida and floated the possibility of flying them up to the wealthy, blue-leaning community of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts if they arrive on Florida soil. The governor came under heavy criticism in 2022 after he ordered a similar flight, of Venezuelan migrants from Texas, before launching his failed presidential bid, then sent two more planes carrying migrants to Sacramento, California. At the time, he said Florida carried out the migrant flights to bring attention to the massive influx of migrants at the southern border and to criticize President Joe Biden’s policies.
Florida, which is home to more than 276,000 Haitians and Haitian Americans, hasn’t yet had an increase of Haitian migrants landing on its shores during the latest unrest, but during past times of turmoil some Haitians have tried to escape their country by taking the dangerous, 700-mile journey to Florida by sea.
DeSantis launched the flights after politically connected gangs overwhelmed Haiti with killings and kidnappings, relegating people to homelessness and the brink of famine. He also isn’t the only one to launch a rescue mission for people who cannot escape the violence. The State Department chartered a flight out of Haiti earlier this week carrying 30 U.S. citizens, and U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) helped Americans evacuate Haiti two separate times in the past week, including people who’d been volunteering at orphanages.
Florida set up a portal online last week for people to ask for help, and as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, 300 Floridians have done so, said Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management executive director, at the press conference. He said he’d hoped to organize more flights Wednesday but added that it had been a “difficult and arduous process” in which he was “running into problem after problem” trying to work with the U.S. federal government to verify people’s identities.
He wouldn’t provide details other than to say the problems were at the “D.C. level” and that emails and phone calls to unspecified federal agencies were going unreturned. Customs and Border Patrol were helping them on the ground in Florida, he said. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are picking people up at their front door, getting them into a plane, getting them to this airport and getting them back to their front door in Florida — that’s what we’re committed to doing,” he said.
Guthrie said he would not “get into tactics” about the rescue missions and the governor didn’t share details about the cost of the flights. Spokespeople for DeSantis did not immediately respond to questions over whether the flights were through contracts with outside organizations. The flights from Israel were organized with the Tampa-based nonprofit rescue organization Project DYNAMO.
Source: Politico
