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A plane reportedly full of asylum-seekers heading from Texas to Delaware so far hasn’t materialised, even as officials there worried they’d be the latest to be surprised with Florida’s highly controversial scheme of flying migrants unannounced to liberal jurisdictions.
Delaware agencies and the White House spent the day preparing for a surprise drop-off near President Biden’s beach home in Rehoboth Beach.
The plane, according to flight tracking services, only made it as far as New Jersey.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at an event on Tuesday he “cannot confirm” the Delaware flight, though he criticised president Biden, who he said “created a crisis” at the border.
State agencies and community groups were ready with humanitarian aid nonetheless.
A group of 48 mostly Venezeulan migrants who the state of Florida transported in a surprise flight to Martha’s Vineyard last week have sued governor Ron DeSantis for the “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme.”
Local officials as well as the governor of California have called for the Florida governor to be criminally investigated for the flights, which reportedly relied on false claims of aid in official-looking to entice the migrants to board them.
Governor DeSantis and his aides and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have defended sending migrants to Democratic-leading states and cities in protest of what they characterise as the president’s “open border” policy.
