Florida

Trump Administration ‘Backed Off' Plan to Send Migrants to South Florida: Sheriff

President Donald Trump has threatened to relocate migrants into so-called sanctuary cities

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said it "appears" the federal U.S. Border Patrol agency has "backed off" from a plan to send 1,000 undocumented migrants to South Florida.

"It appears that Border Patrol has backed off its initial plans to transport 1,000 illegal immigrants to South Florida," PBSO Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said in an audio message posted on Twitter. "Because of everybody's efforts, we were able to stop what will appear to be a crisis for our community."

Bradshaw initially said he was notified of plans by U.S. Border Patrol's Miami office that it would transport 1,000 migrants each month from the El Paso, Texas, area to South Florida's counties of Broward and Palm Beach.

The migrant families would have been processed, given a notice to appear in court and released into the community, Bradshaw said.

The federal government has run out of space to process the thousands of immigrants who have been arriving at the border, forcing them to fly migrants to Border Patrol facilities in other locations that have room.

The migrants are typically processed, released and given a court date in a city where they plan to reside, often with family members. Once the immigrants are released, nonprofit organizations in other cities have been stepping in to provide meals and bus tickets to their destinations.

Bradshaw thanked elected and governmental officials for their efforts to plan for the influx that he suggested appears to have been canceled.

On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state "cannot accommodate" the influx of immigrants.

"We cannot accommodate in Florida just dumping unlawful migrants into our state. I think it will tax our resources, the schools, the health care, law enforcement, state agencies," DeSantis said.

President Donald Trump has threatened to relocate migrants into so-called sanctuary cities – places where law enforcement does not honor federal requests to hold arrested people who are in the country illegally until they can be picked up by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

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