Florida governor Ron Desantis has ordered the deployment of an additional 250 police officers and National Guardsmen and more than 12 additional aircraft and ships to “combat illegal vessels” due to the “circumstances in Haiti”. The announcement reads below:
For quite some time, the State of Florida has been dedicating significant resources to combat illegal vessels coming to Florida from countries such as Haiti. Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard, and state…
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) March 13, 2024
In FY23, out of the 236,691 illegal immigrants who were acknowledged to have crossed into Florida, 69,435 of them were from Haiti. The current quasi-revolution and the resignation of Prime Minister Henri is expected to cause an even more exacerbated economic and security situation. The large majority of these illegal immigrants come to Florida by means of handmade boats and human-traffickers. Several of these boats proved unseaworthy and resulted in the death of hundreds of migrants over the years.
