‘Lying is a sin’: DeSantis’ press secretary says Miami archbishop lied about governor’s remarks

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office escalated the war of words on Tuesday with the leader of Florida’s Roman Catholic Church, saying Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski “lied” last week when he spoke against an executive action that targets shelters housing unaccompanied migrant youth.

“Lying is a sin,” the governor’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, wrote in a tweet accompanying a photograph of the archbishop that included a quote from Wenski from a Feb. 10 press conference at the Archdiocese of Miami. At the event, business and religious leaders along with immigration advocates opposed DeSantis’ immigration policies.

About 20 minutes after her tweet, Pushaw clarified in another tweet that she meant to refer to Wenski personally: “I pointed out that he lied about what @GovRonDeSantis said....”

Pushaw was referring to a comment by Wenski last week in which the archbishop said: “Children are children, and no child should be deemed disgusting, especially by a public servant.”

Wenski’s comments alluded to a Feb. 7 round-table discussion, in which DeSantis said it was “disgusting” to compare Operation Pedro Pan, a 1960s relocation of thousands of Cuban youth to South Florida, to the resettlement of unaccompanied minors under President Biden’s administration, which the Republican governor has repeatedly called a “human-smuggling operation.”

“This engagement seems to be between the governor’s staff and his public,” said Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Miami. Besides heading the archdiocese, Wenski also carries the title of Metropolitan, meaning he oversees all seven dioceses in the state.

The photograph Pushaw used on Twitter was originally posted by the American Business Immigration Coalition, an organization made up of pro-immigration reform businesses that also participated at last week’s press conference with Wenski.

Felice Gorordo, a board member of the coalition’s Florida chapter and son of a former Pedro Pan participant, said it was “absurd and hypocritical” for the governor’s spokesperson to say the archbishop was lying.

“I think it’s clear who has the moral authority in this matter, and I applaud and appreciate the Archbishop for his steadfast leadership in pushing back and standing up to politicians like DeSantis trying to weaponize these innocent children,” said Gorordo.

After the Miami Herald story ran online, Pushaw followed up with another tweet Tuesday evening.

“Before the Miami Herald and other activist groups try to say I am anti-Catholic (add it to the list of epithets about me) I should note that I am Catholic myself and have no antipathy toward any religion. Catholics do not have to support illegal immigration or human smuggling,” she said.

Pushaw’s comments came on the same day that a Spanish-language ad blasting DeSantis for the shelter rule launched Tuesday on South Florida’s airwaves. The governor’s executive action announced in December mandates state regulators to not issue or renew licenses for shelters that house unaccompanied migrant children through partnerships with the federal government.

The American Business Immigration Coalition Action, a partner organization of ABIC, is behind the campaign, which will be broadcast on multiple AM and FM radio stations for several days.

The strongly worded radio ad is titled “Disgusting?,” a reference to the comment DeSantis made last week when criticizing comparisons to Pedro Pan kids who arrived in the 1960s to unaccompanied minors today.

“Disgusting? Disgusting is that Gov. DeSantis is trying to benefit himself politically by attacking innocent immigrant children who are only seeking refuge,” says the narrator of the ad.

The ad campaign which the coalition said cost “six figures,” describes Miami as “Florida’s own Ellis Island.” It also blasts the governor for positioning Pedro Pan kids as “more worthy of help” than minors fleeing instability in their home countries today.

The ad explicitly mentioned Haitian and Venezuelan migrants, two communities with growing political clout in South Florida.

“Children are children, whether they are escaping the oppressive Castro regime or violence, socialism and dictatorship in Venezuela, Haiti and Central America. None of these children are disgusting and caring for them is an act of humanity,” said Mike Fernandez, a Cuban exile and co-chairman of the coalition that paid for the ad.

Along with running the ad and hosting press conferences, opponents of the governor’s rule have also penned op-eds, written public letters, published podcasts and spoken up in legislative hearings. They fear the executive order, along with a pair of bills being considered in the state Legislature, will shut down shelter services as well as family reunifications between children and their relatives.

The governor’s office pushed back against the ad after it started airing.

Pushaw told the Miami Herald that the ad was “false” and characterized it as a “blatant example of Spanish-language misinformation,” mainly because of how the governor’s previous comments were framed.

“Gov. DeSantis didn’t call unaccompanied minors ‘disgusting,’” she said.

Last week, the Florida Department of Children and Families proposed a rule to codify the governor’s executive action as agency policy.

Pushaw said the DCF proposal would “ensure Florida children can be served by state licensed facilities without unfair competition from the federal government.” She had previously said the state cannot compete with the rates the federal government pays local shelters.

The DCF rule mandates a “cooperative agreement” between the federal and state governments so shelters can receive licenses to house unaccompanied migrant children. It also requires shelters and foster agencies to conduct twice-a-year “welfare checks” of the youth in their care, which include taking photos of the children.

In response to the new rule, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the office responsible for the shelters that house unaccompanied minors, said in a statement the agency is “currently examining all the legal options available” to keep working with Florida’s shelters.

“It is our legal responsibility to safely care for unaccompanied children,” the spokesperson said. “We will take every step needed to support our partners and ensure that the children under our care are in a safe and secure environment.”

Listen to the ad, which includes Spanish and English transcript, below:

Miami Herald Tallahassee reporter Ana Ceballos contributed to this story.

This story was originally published February 15, 2022 at 5:25 PM.