Miami Mayor Francis Suarez: Partisan political tactics are exploiting migrants
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez accused Democrats and Republicans of using immigrants to score political points, a reaction to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to use state funds to fly Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The mayor, a registered Republican in a nonpartisan post whose political advisers are exploring a possible 2024 Suarez presidential campaign, told the Miami Herald that both parties were to blame for a flawed immigration system that has led to migrants getting shuffled from the southern border to several cities.
“Both parties have been transferring migrants across the country, and I don’t think that anyone who’s a migrant to this country should be transported around as if they are property, as opposed to people,” Suarez said, pointing to news reports from November 2021 about dozens of flights carrying migrants landing in Jacksonville over several months.
The Washington Post reported that those flights conducted by the Biden administration were largely a continuation of policies implemented under former President Donald Trump, though the pace of such flights may have increased due to a larger number of migrants at the border.
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Suarez, 44 and a son of Cuban immigrants, is mayor of the most populous city in a metropolitan area with the largest Venezuelan population in the U.S. He said Miami is sympathetic to the struggles of the people who landed in Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday and were being transported to Cape Cod on Friday afternoon.
“The Venezuelan people have suffered tremendously, and the fact is that they are fleeing political persecution, like Cubans,” Suarez said. “So that’s something that I think sort of strikes a nerve in this community.”
Never mentioning DeSantis or Biden by name, Suarez addressed reporters’ questions about the controversy during a U.S. Conference of Mayors event near downtown Miami. He is president of the mayor’s group, which met to discuss issues facing major American cities.
“It’s time for us to have a comprehensive solution to this problem, on a bipartisan basis, so that we can move on and so that we can treat people like human beings,” Suarez told reporters.
Other U.S. mayors who were present fielded questions about the flight to Martha’s Vineyard, though they shied away from any direct criticisms and engaging in partisan rhetoric.
“I’m not going to do any politics,” said Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C. “What the mayors have to do is we have to make sure that we have efficient systems that work for people in our cities, our residents and for people who may be traveling through our cities. And that’s my focus.”
This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 3:46 PM.
