In Miami, county mayor to DeSantis: Don’t use Venezuelans to ‘score political points’

Miami-Dade County has the largest Venezuelan population in the United States, and its mayor on Thursday told Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis he should be celebrating immigrants and “not using them to score political points.”

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, posted a statement on Twitter about the DeSantis administration’s recent use of state dollars to fly Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts after they crossed the United States border into Texas. The migrants had been released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as they await asylum or other claims to try and remain in the country.

“In Miami we know all too well why Venezuelans come to our nation fleeing oppression and seeking freedom,” Levine Cava wrote in the post. “Today, at the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, we should be celebrating the many contributions of immigrants who built our community — not using them to score political points.”

More than 100,000 people from Venezuela live in the greater Miami area, according to a 2020 report by the Migration Policy Institute. That’s the highest Venezuelan population of any metropolitan area in the report.

The Florida-funded flights to the island resort popular with wealthy Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, was part of a program approved by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature to transport people who entered the country illegally to “sanctuary” jurisdictions.

That term loosely applies to governments that have restrictions on cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

Miami-Dade was considered a “sanctuary” jurisdiction by the Obama administration for declining to honor 48-hour detention requests at county jails for inmates being sought for possible deportation. For years, Miami-Dade declined to extend jail time for those inmates to allow for federal authorities to take them into custody.

In early 2017, under a promised crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump, the Miami-Dade County Commission changed its policy and began accepting detention requests. Then a county commissioner, Levine Cava voted against the policy change.

In response to outrage about the relocation of dozens of Venezuelan people to Martha’s Vineyard, the DeSantis campaign and his state press office have been urging critics and Democratic leaders to open their homes to migrants.

“Plenty of space,” Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary in the governor’s office, said in a Twitter post over Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation compound.

This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 5:58 PM.