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- Customs and Border Patrol officials reportedly have no plans to send migrant families to Florida, despite announcements from state officials that President Donald Trump’s administration planned to do so.
- Multiple reports cited CBP agents who confirmed the agency had no plans to send migrants who were detained at the US southern border to Florida.
- The development comes days after Florida officials sharply pushed back on what they said was an administration announcement that would affect Palm Beach and Broward counties.
- Though neither are "sanctuary cities" for migrants, local officials cast the announcement as a political attack after President Donald Trump previously said he would release migrants from detention centers into sanctuary cities as a way to punish Democrats.
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Customs and Border Patrol officials reportedly have no plans to send migrant families to Florida, despite announcements from state officials that President Donald Trump’s administration planned to do so.
Reports from the Hill and NPR cited CBP agents who confirmed the agency wasn’t sending migrant families Florida "at this time" but said officials were looking at housing migrants in other areas across the country.
Local officials revealed that federal immigration authorities told them to expect as many as 500 migrants detained at the southern border sent to Broward and Palm Beach counties each month.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw announced at a press conference he had learned the Customs and Border Protection agency would soon bring 1,000 migrants per month to Palm Beach and Broward counties, where they would be processed and released into the communities.
Bradshaw rejected the plan, adding that he wasn’t aware of what families would be selected, what medical care the migrants might need, how they will be transported from the processing facility, or where they will live and how they will eat.
"It’s not a good plan," Bradshaw said. "We think it’s a danger to this community, and it’s going to put a real strain on what the resources are."
"We cannot accommodate in Florida the dumping of unlawful migrants into our state," Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a press conference Friday. "I think it will tax our resources, our schools, the healthcare, law enforcement, state agencies."
Sen. Marco Rubio pushed for answers about the federal plan in a letter to the acting homeland security secretary, Kevin McAleenan, on Thursday.
The announcements came just one month after Trump said he was strongly considering having immigration officials release migrants from detention centers into so-called sanctuary cities as a way to punish Democrats.
State officials cast the move as a political push against Democrats tied to the two South Florida counties, though neither are sanctuary cities.
Michelle Mark contributed reporting.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Ellen Cranley)