Florida law enforcement recently intercepted a vessel carrying Haitians armed with guns, drugs, and night vision gear, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Friday.
Speaking about the continued effort to keep the Sunshine State safe — particularly in the midst of the violent unrest in Haiti — DeSantis said Florida officers prevented 25 potential illegal immigrants hailing from Haiti from entering Florida.
“Just recently within the last couple of weeks — and this will be made public later today — our Florida Fish and Wildlife officers interdicted a vessel that had 25 illegal immigrants, potentially illegal immigrants, from Haiti,” the governor announced.
“In their boat, in their vessel, they had firearms. They had drugs. They had night vision gear and were boating very recklessly which would potentially endanger other folks,” he said, adding that the boat was “interdicted near the Sebastian inlet,” which is roughly 40 miles south of Port Canaveral.
“And those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation. So our folks have been doing this before we augmented this, and they’re gonna continue to do it,” DeSantis said, boasting of the “incredible amount of resources that are now on display.”
This is always a priority of officials, DeSantis said, but he explained that it is different now because there are more resources from the state, so it is an overall larger effort.
DeSantis went on to say that this issue — a matter of border security and illegal immigrants — should be the federal government’s responsibility, but the Biden administration has continued to shirk its duties and ultimately, the Coast Guard is “undermanned.”
“The Coast Guard does by and large a good job, but they’re undermanned. They’re under-resourced, so we’re filling those gaps,” he said. “I think one difference now is, and we see this with our folks that we have at the border, you have people coming across the southern border from all over the world,” DeSantis continued, explaining that at this point it would actually be easier for potential illegal immigrants from Haiti to fly to Mexico once flights resume and enter the United States on the southern border.
“I would anticipate if flights resume, that will likely be where a lot of those folks [go] who are trying to flee. If they want to come to the United States, they’re probably gonna go to Mexico and then come in through the border, knowing that Biden will just let everybody in,” he said.
WATCH:
BREAKING: Gov. Ron DeSantis announces Florida agents have interdicted a vessel that had 25 suspected illegal aliens from Haiti
"They had firearms, they had drugs […] That vessel was interdicted [and] those illegal aliens were turned over to the Coast Guard for deportation." pic.twitter.com/LIRBuEwFiO
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) March 15, 2024
DeSantis’s announcement comes just days after he announced the deployment of additional assets to the southern portion of the state due to the increased risk of illegal immigrants coming from Haiti. That move is part of Operation Vigilant Sentry, and the additional assets included 39 officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 23 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 48 additional Guardsmen from the Florida National Guard, and 30 officers from the Florida Highway Patrol.
The decision comes as bloody gang violence rocks Haiti, which has continued to descend into chaos.
As Breitbart News reported:
The prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, announced on Monday night he would resign “immediately” after the creation of a “Presidential Transitional Council” meant to take steps towards organizing a presidential election.
Henry’s announcement followed the near-total collapse of the country’s political infrastructure this week after he traveled to Kenya seeking law enforcement aid to subdue the increasingly powerful gangs overrunning the country. While Henry was out of the country, organized armed militias led by Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, the head of the G9 Family of gangs, orchestrated a massive prison break and surrounded Port-au-Prince’s airport, making it impossible for the prime minister to return. Cherizier has, for years, demanded the ouster of the entire Haitian political class and last week threatened to plunge the country into “genocide” if Henry did not resign.
RELATED — Rep. Cory Mills Helps Rescue Americans from Haiti amid Gang Violence, Anarchy
Over the weekend, the U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) said it was airlifting non-essential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti amid the rising unrest.
Breitbart News’s John Hayward reported on March 14, “The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) announced on Wednesday that the Marine Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) has been deployed to Haiti to ‘maintain strong security capabilities at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince.’”
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