WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Fracas festers over flights
TALLAHASSEE — For days, Florida’s role in a recent round of controversial migrant flights remained a mystery — until Tuesday, when state officials said two flights that transported migrants from Texas to California were “voluntary” relocations.
The flights, which took place Friday and Monday, brought South American migrants from El Paso to Sacramento. Confirmation that the flights originated from Florida came from the state Division of Emergency Management.
Division spokeswoman Alecia Collins pointed to a video posted on the social-media site Rumble that showed images of people filling out forms, listening to upbeat music in a stretch vehicle, walking across an airport tarmac and celebrating their arrival in California.
“Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California,” a news release from the division said. “A contractor was present and ensured they made it safely to a 3rd-party NGO (non-governmental organization). The specific NGO, Catholic Charities, is used and funded by the federal government.”
The flights followed similar actions by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in September, when 49 migrants were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Even before Florida had taken credit for the latest flights, California Gov. Gavin Newsom attacked DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man.” Newsom, a Democrat, raised the possibility of kidnapping charges as he and California Attorney General Rob Bonta questioned the legality of the flights.
Newsom in a news release Saturday said efforts were underway to ensure that migrants “dumped on the doorstep” of a Sacramento church are “treated with respect and dignity.” He also said the California Department of Justice was investigating who paid for the trip and “whether the individuals orchestrating this trip misled anyone with false promises or have violated any criminal laws, including kidnapping.”
DeSantis broke his silence on the flights during an immigration “roundtable” in Arizona on Wednesday. The governor described the use of Florida tax dollars to pay for the migrant flights as helping Texas combat a border crisis, and called for states to be “more aggressive” in immigration enforcement.
“We have an ability to do things, like support police and help out Texas, because we have a good managed state,” DeSantis said during an event in Sierra Vista, Ariz., that focused on his opposition to Biden administration immigration policies.
DeSantis delivered the comments during his first trip to the U.S. southwest border since announcing his candidacy for president. He cited $24 million earmarked by the Legislature in the last two years aimed at funding similar migrant flights.
“This (money for migrant flights) is something that’s been in the budget now for, I think, for two years,” DeSantis said. “If a sheriff asked for our support in Texas, we do this as an American problem. We don’t do it just as a Texas problem, as we think we’re all in this together.”
BIG MAN ON CAMPUS
South Florida State College will soon have a new leader at the helm, after the school’s trustees tapped state Rep. Fred Hawkins, a St. Cloud Republican, to succeed retiring President Thomas Leitzel.
Hawkins, who has served in the House since 2020, was the lone finalist for the position.
In the House, Hawkins this year sponsored a high-profile bill that was a priority of DeSantis amid an ongoing feud between the governor and the Walt Disney Co. The measure gave DeSantis authority to appoint the board of the former Reedy Creek Improvement District, which also was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
Hawkins served from 2008 to 2020 on the Osceola County Commission. But DeSantis suspended him in July 2020 after Hawkins was charged with impersonating a law-enforcement officer. Hawkins went on to get elected to the House in November 2020.
Hawkins did not return a request for comment Wednesday from The News Service of Florida. A spokesman for DeSantis did not reply to a request for comment about Hawkins’ selection as president of the college, which has campuses in Highlands, DeSoto and Hardee counties.
Critics of Hawkins’ selection, however, have suggested the pick was purely political.
“Another GOP politician with no real qualifications for a job like this being appointed to lead a college. Higher education institutions shouldn’t serve as job placement plans for political cronies. The grift is real,” Thomas Kennedy, a Florida member of the Democratic National Committee, said in a Twitter post Wednesday.
Details of Hawkins’ proposed contract will not be available until a June 21 meeting of the trustees, a South Florida State College spokeswoman said. Hawkins is expected to assume the president role on July 3.
Meanwhile, three candidates in recent weeks have filed paperwork to run for Hawkins’ House District 35 seat in Osceola and Orange counties. The candidates filed to run in the 2024 election. But with Hawkins vacating the seat, DeSantis likely will call a special election to determine a replacement.
TAKE A HIKE
With the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. continuing to see massive growth, regulators Thursday took up a proposal that would lead to double-digit rate increases for Citizens customers across Florida.
The proposed increases would vary based on factors such as types of policies. But Brian Donovan, the chief actuary for Citizens, said during a hearing held by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation that Citizens is recommending 12 percent increases for all homes that are primary residences and have what are known as multi-peril policies — the most-common type of coverage.
Increases could be dramatically higher for homes that are not primary residences. A new state law allows increases up to 50 percent for those properties.
“We take asking for a rate increase very seriously,” Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio said during Thursday’s hearing. “(For) homeowners’ insurance consumers, it’s a very difficult time right now.”
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Ron DeSantis this week called for states to be “more aggressive” in immigration enforcement, as California officials continued investigating potential criminal wrongdoing after Florida directed flights of migrants from Texas to Sacramento.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We mean business. And so, Ron DeSantis should know that. And everyone that’s been part of this, and they have more direct accountability and culpability, should know we mean business and we’re not backing away from getting the facts and holding those accountable if they broke the laws of the state of California.” — California Gov. Gavin Newsom.