With the surge of asylum seekers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol are now flying migrants from the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas to cities across the country.
In San Diego on Friday, 100 migrants arrived for processing. It came one day after two south Florida counties were upset with a plan that would bring thousands of migrants there.
“We cannot accommodate in Florida just dumping unlawful migrants into our state,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I think it’ll tax our resources, the schools, healthcare, law enforcement, state agencies.”
CBS News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House, but neither has responded.
Florida officials have been told to expect two plane loads of migrants each week, up to 1,000 people a month, split between Palm Beach and Broward counties. Both are Democratic strongholds. The migrants do not face criminal charges but would likely be released into the community awaiting immigration hearings.
CBS News reporting found that 80% of the beds at the nation’s largest detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas were empty last month. But Brian Hastings, chief of law enforcement operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said they’re overwhelmed.
“The crisis at hand is causing us to look at multiple different locations where we have capacity to process, to fly these individuals to, simply so we can process them into the system,” Hastings said.
Florida has no designated shelters or government funding for food and security. Officials there have been told to expect migrants in about two weeks.
© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
