What happens at the border doesn’t stay at the border.
Intellectually you know this, and earlier this year we discussed this. As Governor DeSantis visited the Southern Border. His purpose was to monitor the work of a contingent of Florida law enforcement professionals deployed to the southern border to assist with the crisis at the request of Texas Governor Gregg Abbott. During that visit, we learned Florida was the most common destination for those processed by Florida’s border contingent. According to their records, 70% of the border crossers settling outside of Texas look forward to being sent into Florida. It stands to reason that little's changed. Florida already has the country’s largest Haitian population and with 12,000+ Haitians having already been caught and released in the United States, you might imagine many migrants are en route right now. That is unless the state can stop it first and that’s exactly what Florida’s AG Ashley Moody intends to do.
Florida sued the Biden administration over what Moody describes as being illegal catch-and-release programs. The suit says, "The Biden administration's illegal border policies cause Florida harm. Many of the aliens illegally released by the Biden administration are arriving or will arrive in Florida, harming the state's quasi-sovereign interests and forcing it to incur millions of dollars in expenses. Further, it is the Biden administration's misguided policies that have encouraged more migrants to make the dangerous journey to the United States. The government is not free to ignore the clear commands of Congress. Once people are released into the interior, the federal government may never find them."
In the suit, we also learned some of the hard cost to you and me as Floridians.
The cost of incarcerating illegal immigrants in Florida now exceeds $100 million per year. I want to emphasize, that’s not the total cost of illegal immigration to Floridians, that's just the cost for those who’ve been convicted and sentenced for crimes they’ve committed while here. What happens at the border most certainly makes its way to Florida and it’s led to high costs financially for Floridians having to pay for the lawlessness in addition to a significant personal cost to the victims of crimes of those whose first act inside the United States was breaking the law. So, about the crimes that are committed. They run the gambit. According to ICE records from 2020, the most common crimes committed by illegal immigrants once inside the US are DUI, drug offenses, assault, sex crimes, homicide, and kidnappings.
Every day Biden allows the border to remain open and compromised we’re literally importing more of all of those crimes into our country and into our state paid for with our tax dollars. Make no mistake, almost all of these migrants are proving to be illegal immigrants. Under the Biden administration, 92.3% of those seeking asylum at our southern border have shown to be illegal immigrants. Most commonly with only 13% ever appearing for a court date or check-in with ICE as ordered when released with papers in the United States. Donald Trump was dead-on correct when he called this an invasion. Ashley Moody is absolutely right to say what the Biden administration is doing is illegal.
I think the fact that Florida is keeping things open, I think that’s going to be attractive to people who don’t want to be controlled.
The Words of Centennial Bank’s southeast Florida’s Division President, J.C. de Ona, when he explained why Florida’s real-estate market and economy are currently booming without having been disrupted by the summer surge in COVID-19 cases which is largely now behind us. People already know what to expect, we know our governor is not going to shut everything down. It’s amazing how far a little freedom and certainty can go. And it’s no mistake why people continue to flee to Florida for both.