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Sanctuary from Stupidity?

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Ron DeSantis’ recent stunt in which Venezuelan refugees in Texas were fraudulently duped into boarding a flight to Martha’s Vineyard was a cruel and expensive way to feed the governor’s boundless ego at taxpayer expense. DeSantis is clearly more interested in airtime on conservative media and pipe dreams of the presidency than leading a state with more than its share of in-house challenges.

DeSantis has never been one for originality. So, when I heard that he was aping Texas Governor Gregg Abbot on this front, I wasn’t the least bit surprised. However, once I learned that the refugees in question hadn’t even touched Florida soil, my head nearly exploded. Buried in a 500-plus page appropriations bill passed by the Florida Legislature this year, was $12 million from the state’s general fund to "facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state consistent with federal law." Clearly, it said nothing about anyone in Texas or refugees that had been released at the border as they legally awaited a ruling on their application for political sanctuary.

But DeSantis apparently couldn’t find a problem to solve in his own state, and wasn’t about to let Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey steal the spotlight he himself clearly feels so entitled to. So he spent $615,000 sending 48 of Texas’ refugees to Massachusetts in what had to be one of the most expensive photo ops of all time. That’s right, our supposedly bright and business savvy, double-Ivy League educated (yet somehow non-elite) governor essentially spent $12,300 per one-way flight, per refugee.

That’s still looking like something of a bargain compared to Abbott’s bussing plan, on which he quickly blew through $12 million of taxpayer money at a much higher per-refugee ratio before having to ask those same taxpayers for "donations." This, it seems, is not a winning strategy in terms of demonstrating how fiscal conservatives will save us from big-spending liberals.

What’s worse, refugees said they were approached by someone who gave them free food and offered them the opportunity to board a free flight to Boston, where they could get expedited working papers. That, of course, is not true, as migrants seeking asylum are not eligible to even apply for work permits until 150 days after they have applied for asylum. Pamphlets given to refugees went public this week, and a Texas sheriff has opened an investigation into the transportation of migrants he said were "lured" under false pretenses from his jurisdiction.

To dehumanize people in such a way–people attempting to escape some of the most hellish conditions on earth, at that–for the mere sake of some cheap press, speaks to a lack of empathy or even humanity unbefitting a leader of a boy scout troop, let alone a state of 22 million people.

When asked about it during a campaign stop here in Bradenton yesterday, our increasingly tough-talking governor claimed that it was "voluntary," without addressing the misleading nature of the proposition and then went into some line about how it was helping to keep fentanyl out of our state and pivoting to the "open border" spiel, while trying to falsely claim that President Biden inherited a very different situation at the border when elected in 2020.

Yes, we have a crisis at the border and an increasingly large number of those seeking entrance are from Venezuela, which recently surpassed Guatemala and Honduras to become second only to Mexico in attempted crossings. But in a political landscape in which nothing beyond giving away money to Big Pharma, Big Energy, Big Finance, and the two parties’ other bipartisan special interest groups can get done without one party achieving the impossible task of a 60-seat majority in the Senate, political stagnation, even in the face of crisis, has become the norm. Cartel smugglers have created a profitable niche industry and pushed their services on the desperate and downtrodden under the "hurry up and get in before the wall goes up" pitch during the last administration, and are doing it under the false notion that "it's so much easier to get in with Biden in office," now.

These silly, childish stunts, however, are not an attempt to solve those problems. They are cheap political theater at the expense of real human beings that seek to improve only the political station of those who orchestrate them, all so that they might one day be captain of this sinking ship of a once great nation. And DeSantis has proven to be interested in little but theater. Whether it was goading legislators to take up "constitutional carry" or even more stringent abortion restrictions during an already inadequate three-day special session called to address the very real property insurance crisis in our state, or fighting with Disney and drag queens at every opportunity, DeSantis has shown himself to be an empty suit, no matter how puffy it may appear on his bloated frame.

"(The left) knows I'm the last line of defense that stands in the way of spreading their woke mind virus to the people of our state," DeSantis wrote in a campaign email released yesterday, before asking for even more money to add to his already massive war chest. No thanks, Ronnie. I don’t particularly like the alternatives, either this fall or in 2024, but serious times call for serious people, not second-rate car salesmen in shiny suits and bad haircuts.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of ourweekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. His 2016 short story collection, Casting Shadows, was recently reissued and is availablehere.

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