MIAMI – While he chaired a group discussion about immigration on Monday at Miami’s American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora, Gov. Ron DeSantis said most of the “unaccompanied alien children” crossing the border are “what would be considered in most parts of the world military-aged males” —15 to 17 years old.
DeSantis said President Joe Biden’s “chaotic” border policies mean “more human trafficking, more sex trafficking, and more drug trafficking.” DeSantis sent Florida National Guard troops to Texas and issued an emergency rule to prevent shelters servicing migrant minors to be licensed as a Florida Department of Children and Families provider, according to News 6 partner WPLG.
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DeSantis said he is working with the Florida legislature to implement laws to deter federal government contractors from “dumping people illegally” in Florida.
“Anybody who is facilitating this can potentially face restitution,” DeSantis said.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said federal immigration authorities are not communicating with Florida about the undocumented migrants who are allowed to move to Florida and in doing so they are endangering lives.
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“We don’t know who they are bringing here because they are not telling us,” Moody said.
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said the situation at the Mexican border cannot be compared to Operation Pedro Pan, which brought 14,000 unaccompanied minors from Cuba to Florida in the early 1960s.
“They like to use children as a pawn in this game, but I can tell you from our perspective we are protecting children,” Nuñez said.
Max Alvarez, a Cuban-American owner of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors who delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention in 2020, said Operation Pedro Pan saved him and other children.
“Imagine the courage of mom and dad to send a kid somewhere,” Alvarez said, adding that what Rev. Bryan O. Walsh, of the Catholic Welfare Bureau, did to help him had nothing to do with the human trafficking industry that is exploiting children in the border.
Jerry Haag, the president of One More Child, a Christian organization that aims to prevent and rescue children from trafficking, said the best solution is to help children in the Triangle countries Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
“Ensuring that they are safe, they are cared for ... have the opportunity to thrive,” Haag said.
DeSantis said there is a lot to be done to help minors in Florida too.