Ron DeSantis vows action against Joe Biden’s ‘midnight flights’

Image via Fox News

Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to take action against “contractors” bringing undocumented immigrants to Florida at the behest of the federal government, though the exact parameters of those moves remain vague.

The Governor, appearing Monday on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ told Fox News viewers a Jacksonville murder happened because President Joe Biden hadn’t been “doing his job” and that a murderer was on one of “Biden’s midnight flights” that brought people, including at least one murder suspect, to the Sunshine State.

“So these are flights that are coming in, 2 or 3 in the morning. The feds, of course, control the airspace. And they’re there on the ground. They take these folks, and they send them to other parts of Florida by bus. Or to other parts of the Southeast,” DeSantis said.

“And that individual who was murdered was, in fact, murdered by an illegal alien who was on one of Biden’s flights, these midnight flights. Unannounced. No notice. No support for the state. No ability for us to be able to veto it ahead of time,” DeSantis added.

“If Biden had not been doing that, if he had been doing his job, that individual would be alive today,” DeSantis continued.

The Governor has discussed this story before. Twenty-four-year old Honduran Yery Noel Medina Ulloa was arrested Oct. 13 in the death of 46-year-old Francisco Javier Cuellar, according to First Coast News. He initially told authorities he was a minor.

The New York Post reported Medina Ulloa was an unaccompanied minor when he crossed the Texas border months earlier.

During the Carlson interview, DeSantis vowed action, or at least a review of potential ways forward. But he acknowledged limitations in what Florida can get done.

“We’re looking at what we can do. I think they use these private contractors. So what we’re looking at is, how can we fight back against the contractors,” DeSantis said. “We can obviously deny them state contracts, which we will do.”

“Can we deny them access to Florida’s market generally? Can we tax them? Can we do things to provide disincentives so they can’t do it? We are going to do whatever we can do to do it, but unfortunately they do have the ability to get in these airports. Because the FAA controls it, and the feds really do have jurisdiction over it. So we’re trying to work with local airport authorities to see if there is a way we can get around that,” DeSantis explained.

In Jacksonville earlier this month, DeSantis suggested he would “ask the Legislature to see what can we do to make sure they can’t just do this with impunity” and would potentially issue an executive order also. Those scenarios were not rehashed on Fox News.

Carlson framed the question as one of potential retribution because the Biden administration “may not like you, may think you’re going to run for President.”

The Governor did not take the host’s bait.

But DeSantis, who continues to dismiss “speculation” about his 2024 plans, signals he may yet run. The Governor is a betting favorite with sportsbooks and maintains the rigorous travel schedule of someone exploring a run for higher office.

Meanwhile, he launched his 2022 reelection campaign officially on Monday, attempting to give Fox News an “exclusive” that was sussed out first by Florida Politics.

Carlson did not find DeSantis’ reelection campaign worthy of mention during a truncated segment that came after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lamenting the treatment of Jan. 6 prisoners and Barstool’s Dave Portnoy pushing back against a piece attacking him in Business Insider.