Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez is under fire and attempting to clarify her statements after she told a Miami Spanish-language radio station that Cuban migrants who arrived in the state illegally would be shipped to Delaware.
During an interview with 1040 AM Actualidad Radio Friday, Nuñez was asked about the recent wave of migrants coming to Florida from Cuba and said the DeSantis administration would take a hard line.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
>
WATCH HERE“That’s why the governor has worked with the legislature, to secure funding to make sure…that people that are coming illegally…that they don’t stay here with their arms crossed, thinking about what they will be able to do," she said. "We are going to send that person, frankly, to Delaware, the president’s home state.”
Nuñez told NBC 6 Monday that her comments were misinterpreted.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
>
SIGN UP
"It was a general discussion about illegal immigration not targeted at Cuban migrants that are fleeing dictatorial regime," she said. "I think I know that best, the daughter of Cuban immigrants.”
Nuñez believes this is an attempt by Democrats at political smearing ahead of Election Day because the program to send undocumented migrants to Delaware has been discussed publicly multiple times since April by the governor.
"There is a difference between illegal immigrants and those that are fleeing repressive dictatorial regimes and those seeking political asylum," Nuñez said.
Nuñez also issued a statement to address the controversy.
“Back in April, Governor DeSantis said he would send illegal immigrants dumped in Florida to states like Delaware. The crisis at our border is something affecting the entire nation, including the Sunshine State," she said in the statement. "And although states do not have jurisdiction over immigration, we do have jurisdiction over the well-being of our residents. Entering the country illegally and fleeing a dictatorship to seek asylum are two different things, and misrepresenting that is offensive."
The sending of migrants to other states follows similar actions in recent months by the governors of Texas and Arizona who have filled charter buses with migrants who have arrived in their states and sent them to New York and Washington, D.C.
In the radio interview, Nuñez also compared the current dramatic wave of Cuban migration to the 1980 Mariel boatlift. “This is going to be worse than Mariel, worse than everything that happened, the impacts in the 1980s and to not do anything is not an option.”
One of the Democratic candidates hoping to face DeSantis in the general election, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, criticized the comments as a "betrayal of our deepest values."
"These men and women are escaping a brutal and murderous regime and yearning to be free. They deserve better than to be treated as pawns in DeSantis’ political games designed to curry favor with the extremist base of the Republican Party," Crist said in a statement.
Another Democratic candidate, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, said DeSantis should "condemn" Nuñez for the comments or ask for her resignation.
Democratic politicians, attorneys and business leaders also held a news conference Monday to address the lieutenant governor's comments.
“Lieutenant governor, you should know better," said Manny Diaz, chair of the Florida Democratic Party. "Or have you too become so driven by power, that you have left your heart, compassion and principles at the door?"
“You can’t say you stand against communism in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua and then turn your back on those fleeing authoritarian regimes," Sen. Annette Tadeo said.
