Bipartisan group slams Florida lt. gov.’s suggestion to send Cuban migrants to Delaware

Cuban American business leaders linked to a bipartisan immigration advocacy group on Monday denounced Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez’s (R) suggestion that the state should ship Cuban migrants to Delaware.

The business leaders, who hold executive or advisory positions at the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), were angered by an interview given in Spanish by Nuñez last week, where she proposed the relocation scheme to President Biden’s home state.

“Lieutenant Governor Nuñez’s suggestion of bussing recently arrived migrants from Florida to Delaware is deeply insensitive to those who had to escape murderous socialist dictatorships and have sought refugee in our state, especially Cubans, Venezuelans, and Nicaraguans,” said ABIC Action Florida State Director Samuel Vilchez Santiago in a statement.

Nuñez’s statement was especially incendiary in Florida, which has a long history of receiving migrants fleeing repressive regimes, particularly from Cuba.

Asked about Cuban migration at the U.S.-Mexico border by Agustín Acosta of “Cada Tarde,” Nuñez said “the place where they want to arrive is Florida, there’s no doubt about it.”

Though Nuñez later recognized that states have no jurisdiction over immigration, she cautioned that the government of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) would not remain “with its arms crossed.” 

“He’s going to send them, very frankly, to the state of Delaware, the president’s state,” said Nuñez.

In suggesting shipping migrants north, Nuñez toed the Republican line, as the party has celebrated Texas and Arizona GOP Govs. Greg Abbott and Doug Ducey, respectively, for their migrant bussing schemes to New York City and Washington.

Nuñez’s statement was picked up in Democratic circles, with Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried — who is running in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary — calling on DeSantis to disavow the remarks.

“The accusations surrounding the Lt. Governor’s interview are a political hitjob and inaccurate,” DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin told The Hill.

DeSantis’s campaign over the weekend also walked back Nuñez’s statements, differentiating between refugees and “those who come illegally.”

“[Nuñez] clearly said that those who come illegally should be transported out of Florida, no matter where they came from,” campaign spokeswoman Christina Pushaw wrote on Twitter.

“If someone came to Miami on a raft from Cuba to escape communist repression, that person is legal bc refugee. This isn’t hard to understand,” Pushaw added.

Still, the interview left little doubt that Acosta and Nuñez were specifically discussing Cuban migrants.

In the interview, Acosta compared current Cuban migration to the Mariel boatlift of 1980 and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis, when according to his numbers, 165,000 Cubans made it to Florida shores.

“The [Border] Patrol says that from Oct. 1 to now, until July 31, 180,000 Cubans have entered, or the sum of Mariel plus [the rafter crisis] and we’re still short,” said Acosta.

“We’re still short, you are absolutely right,” responded Nuñez.

While the United States does have a refugee program, it does not apply to Cuban nationals who arrive in Florida by sea, although those individuals can stake an asylum claim once they are on U.S. territory.

As a general rule, refugee status is granted to foreign nationals outside of U.S. territory, while any foreign national within the United States can claim asylum at any time, citing a fear of persecution upon return to their homeland.

Migration from Cuba has risen significantly over the past year, with nationals of the communist island taking both sea and land routes to arrive in the United States.

According to the Coast Guard, nearly 4,500 Cubans have been intercepted at sea in 2022, compared to only 838 in 2021.

And border apprehensions of migrants from beyond the United States’ closest neighbors — Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — have increased significantly in recent months.

In July, for instance, nearly half of all apprehensions at the border were conducted on individuals from countries beyond Mexico and Central America, including 20,099 apprehensions of Cubans and 17,651 of Venezuelans.

The bulk of migrants bussed north by border states have been asylum applicants apprehended by border authorities and released pending resolution of their cases.

To apply for asylum, foreign nationals must make contact with U.S. border or immigration officials and state a fear of returning to their place of origin; a majority of undocumented immigrants who are processed at the border and released go through that process.

Foreign nationals who arrive to the United States by sea — or those who evade apprehension at the border — and do not make an asylum claim are technically undocumented immigrants.

Still, the confusion over whom Nuñez proposed to ship to Delaware did not mitigate the ire of the ABIC members.

“Employers across the country are facing a devastating labor shortage that contributes to rising inflation and creates supply chain bottlenecks. We don’t need politicians creating a crisis that will stunt our recovery simply to score political points right before an election off the backs of vulnerable asylum seekers, most of whom come from Cuba and Venezuela,” said Mike Fernández, co-chair of ABIC Action.

“Cubans, and more recently Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and others, are part of a proud legacy of new immigrants building Florida into an economic powerhouse. Those who arrived recently are no different,” added Fernández.

Updated at 7:30 p.m.