The Republican governor relayed his outrage against the Biden White House during a Wednesday appearance on Fox News in which he connected the administration’s immigration policies to the case of Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, a Honduran migrant who has since been charged with murdering a Jacksonville man who took him in.
“Unfortunately there was a tragic situation — one of the illegals that Biden flew in committed a murder in Florida recently,” DeSantis told host Sean Hannity, referring to the Ulloa case and reports of migrant flights taking place within the US.
“That individual who died would be alive had Biden not been doing this,” the governor said of 46-year-old victim, Francisco Javier Cuellar. “So, this is really serious stuff.”
DeSantis shed light on how his team obtained information about the 78 flights bringing immigrants to the Jacksonville area, and claimed that Ulloa came to California on one of dozens of secretive flights into the US.
“They don’t tell us when these flights are coming in — these are flights at 2 in the morning,” DeSantis quipped. “We’re looking at ways to hold these contractors accountable who are basically the instruments of Biden’s lawlessness.”
After aggressive criticism of its immigration policy, the Biden administration has defended court challenges to its relaxed border management with proposed changes, including plans to boost refugee admissions and preserving deportation relief for unauthorized immigrants already inside the US.
“If it’s a federal responsibility, what happens when the federal government totally defaults on that responsibility?” DeSantis asked. “Are they saying the states have no ability to protect themselves?”
The Florida governor mentioned that his administration was “looking at ways to be able to protect the state.”
Ulloa, who was arrested October 13 in connection to Cuellar’s death, reportedly fooled border patrol police in Texas by claiming he was an unaccompanied minor when he crossed into Texas months earlier, according to the New York Post.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday offered a statement that attempted to clarify the claims made by DeSantis. “Learning of secret flights and transports into Florida of those illegally crossing the border raises serious safety concerns, and it is imperative that Florida officials be apprised of who the Biden administration is transporting into our state,” the statement read in part.