Why are so few Haitian refugees arriving by boat in Florida? DeSantis has a theory — and claims credit

Gov. Ron DeSantis offered a theory Wednesday about why boats carrying Haitian refugees aren’t arriving on Florida’s shores, even as the Caribbean nation’s capital is largely ruled by violent gangs.

The reason, DeSantis said, is people who might want to leave Haiti don’t try because they know if they’re found on the open water they’ll be sent back.

DeSantis took a measure of credit for that policy and what he said is the result as he pointed to the interdiction last week of a boat off the South Florida coast.

It’s the Biden administration, which DeSantis criticized later in the same answer, that has maintained the U.S. government policy of returning people interdicted on the open water to the country where they originated.

Later on Wednesday, DeSantis’ office announced the state has evacuated a total of 722 Americans from Haiti. The operation began on March 20, after turmoil in the country made it difficult to get around the capital and disrupted commercial air service.

DeSantis offered his assessment of about the lack of refugees arriving via sea when he offered a long response to an unrelated question at an event in the Gulf coast town of Redington Shores.

“You look at what we’ve done by holding people accountable trying to come to this country, our state, illegally. We just interdicted like another 40 Haitians illegally coming, and there were human smugglers on the boat,” DeSantis said.

“We stopped them, they’re not on the shores of Florida. They got stopped and they got sent back. And so people now, and I think one of the reasons you haven’t seen an influx of vessels from Haiti since you’ve had everything really go — I mean it’s, it’s always been problematic but — south even more in the last couple of months, is because people know why would you want to get in some boat chart for the Florida Keys knowing you’re gonna get stopped, turned around and sent back to where you came from?” he said. “It’s not worth it. It’s not worth doing.”

On Friday, Miami-Dade Police stopped a 60-foot yacht near the South Florida coast and found what the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said were “approximately 30 migrants of Haitian nationality and two alleged human smugglers.” FWC, a state agency whose law enforcement officers participated in the interdiction, said the migrants were turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard for repatriation.

In March, the Coast Guard repatriated 65 migrants to Haiti. They’d been found near the Bahamas.

DeSantis said the policy of sending people back to their country of origin should be in place at the southern U.S. Border.

“If that was the attitude for our southern border, we’d be much better off because people would know it’s probably not a smart idea to pay some coyote six grand to get me to the border if all that’s gonna be happening is I’m gonna be sent back anyways,” DeSantis said.

Related Articles

• Politics | ‘Atrocious cruelty’: Haitian community leaders condemn Biden administration’s resumption of deportations to Haiti

• Politics | Surge in Haitian migrants hasn’t hit Florida shores, so far. What happened?

• Politics | As Florida Democrats profess optimism, polling shows voters favor Donald Trump and Rick Scott

• Politics | DeSantis approval on the upswing; Republicans like idea of Casey DeSantis for governor

• Politics | Uncle Luke for Congress? Luther Campbell, rapper turned civic activist, preparing to challenge congresswoman

Warning about a possible surge of Haitian migrants arriving by sea, DeSantis in March deployed mobilization of Florida personnel and equipment to supplement the federal response from the Coast Guard and other agencies.

Democratic Haitian-American leaders dismissed the deployment of state forces offshore as a meaningless political move.

Ronald Surin, a former vice president of the Haitian Lawyers Association and president of the Haitian American Democratic Club of Broward County, has said that people in Haiti “do not pay any attention to what the governor of Florida does before they leave on a boat.”

One question, many answers

DeSantis brought up Haitian migration as part of his response to a reporter’s question about whether he’d re-suspend Andrew Warren if he’s elected again this year as Hillsborough County state attorney. When DeSantis was running for reelection in 2022, he suspended Warren, alleging he wasn’t fully enforcing all state laws, something Warren denied.

DeSantis didn’t say what he’d do if Warren wins in November, instead offering a proverb. “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts (then) every day would be Christmas,” he said. “I think it’s all gonna work out.”

His answer was just short of eight minutes, in a style similar to that of his nemesis, former President Donald Trump, who is well known for jumping from topic to topic.

DeSantis went through more than a dozen different topics, including property crime and prosecutors, squatters, Florida being “the best state for law and order,” spring break in Miami Beach, defunding the police, Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, protests in favor of Palestinians and Hamas in 2024, and treatment of Jewish students on some college campuses.

Administrators at universities like Columbia and Yale “are weak. They’re scared and they won’t do anything.” On retail theft, DeSantis said: “You should be able to go to the pharmacy and be able to grab deodorant off the shelf without that being behind plexiglass.”

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Post.news.