WH accuses DeSantis of ‘political stunts’ by activating the National Guard to handle migrants arriving in Florida

At a White House briefing on Wednesday, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Gov. Ron DeSantis was engaging in "political stunts" by calling up the National Guard to deal with recent migrant crossings to South Florida, and also said he treats migrants like “pawns.”

Video Transcript

- Do a reaction to Governor DeSantis a couple of days ago. Well, they're going to activate the National Guard and the Florida National Guard in response to the Cuban migration surge.

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: So we have known for some time now, right, we've seen Governor DeSantis do political stunts. That is how he perceives to fix this issue from Florida, right? And he takes-- you know, we're talking about people who are coming from countries who are dealing with political strife, who are dealing with issues, where they're trying to find asylum. And he treats them like pawns.

And so we have called that out over and over again. And we will continue to do that. And he is not dealing with the problem, he's actually creating a problem. And so that's what I have to say to that. We've talked about Governor DeSantis and the, again, the mockery that he's making of a process that the President is trying to fix.

He's trying to deal with this issue. He has made, when you think about immigration reform, a priority by putting forward a piece of legislation on the first day of his administration. And what he's going to continue to call on is for Congress Republicans to actually take action and really deal with this crisis-- this issue.