Keys Sheriff Rick Ramsay: Biden Admin Fails to Address Migrant Surge
MONROE COUNTY (FLV) – As migrants stream into the Florida Keys overwhelming deputies, Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay believes the federal government has failed to address the migrant surge.
In an interview with Townhall, Ramsay praised Gov. Ron DeSantis for deploying the Florida National Guard to help with the increase in illegal boat landings.
DeSantis Activates National Guard in Response to ‘Alarming Influx’ of Migrants Landing in the Florida Keys
“First and foremost, I think the Governor is doing a great job. It’s his job to protect the citizens and visitors in Florida and make sure Florida is safe, so his actions are definitely are appropriate. He’s doing what he needs to do because, I believe, the federal government has failed in this aspect,” Ramsay said.
“Immigration is the responsibility of the federal government. They’ve had plans and policies in place that they have not been following.”
These boat landings used to occur in Ramsay’s jurisdiction about once a week, according to the sheriff. Now the landings are happening nearly every day.
“It’s almost turning into a humanitarian crisis for those people who are coming here who think they are going to be taken care of and they wind up on the streets, it’s not fair to them…The [federal] government doesn’t seem to have a plan, if they do, it’s sure as heck not working. So I think the federal government has failed,” Ramsay said.
“Who has succeeded and doing their job is Governor DeSantis and the state of Florida. They are stepping up and taking action that they shouldn’t have to take because this problem should not exist. This is a manmade problem by the federal government.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has deployed two dozen members to help with the immigration surge in Monroe County.
At the beginning of the year, the influx of illegal immigrants into Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles of Key West, caused the park to temporarily close down.
“I am activating the National Guard and directing state resources to help alleviate the strain on local resources,” DeSantis said. “When Biden continues to ignore his legal responsibilities, we will step in to support our communities.”
About a week after the governor’s move, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lambasted DeSantis’ actions as a “political stunt.”
“We’ve seen Governor DeSantis do political stunts. That is how he perceives to fix this issue from Florida, right? […] 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,” she said.
However, at DeSantis’ January 12th press conference, he noted the U.S. Coast Guard “actually requested the state’s assistance to handle all these vessels.”
“Part of it is the message that’s gone out to say, ‘the rules don’t matter, just show up and you’re fine.’ You can’t run a country like that, and it’s caused a lot of problems. And so, we were seeing the Coast Guard had brought in like 300 people that they had onboarded and put them in the Florida Keys,” DeSantis said. “Well, they didn’t have the ability to take care of those folks.”
