The Farmworker Association of Florida denounces the actions of Florida governor Ron DeSantis in putting immigrants on airplanes to Martha’s Vineyard. These actions represent another political stunt aimed at gaining popularity with his base, rather than an actual attempt to help immigrant individuals and families.

Immigrants come to our country looking for safety for themselves and their families and for an opportunity to make a living. While elected officials play politics with the lives of individuals, these immigrants’ lives are once more upended, and the uncertainty of their migration journey grows further as they find themselves again in another mode of transportation to an unknown destination. As we have stated before when other elected officials have resorted to similar stunts, playing politics with people’s lives is an unconscionable act that should be repudiated by all the people of Florida. As we have also said before, immigration to the United States does not take place in a vacuum, but results from combined local and foreign factors in which our own government has played a part by pursuing economic and foreign policy detrimental to the stabilization of other nations.

We benefit in this country from the labor of people with few options who only ask for an escape from violence and for a chance at a better life; who do some of the hardest work this country has to offer, and they do it because it means a better opportunity for their children than the one that was available to them. We denounce the actions of the governor and invite all the people of Florida to likewise denounce these actions and to call elected officials to demand that instead of attacking immigrants, they work on other more pressing issues that truly affect Floridians instead.