Near majority of Florida voters support migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard: Poll

The majority of voters in Florida support Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to relocate illegal migrants to other states like Massachusetts and New York, according to a new poll released after Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed Florida farmers want the migrants to stay and “pick the crops.”

The Spectrum News/Sienna College poll found that 49% of likely Florida voters support sending illegal migrants to other states, while 44% do not support the action. Almost 90% of Republican and 50% of Independent voters in Florida agree that migrants should be relocated to different cities, a move that only 10% of Democrats support.

In September, DeSantis sent 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a luxury beach town off the coast of Massachusetts, and was blasted by Democrats and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who called it a form of “human trafficking.”

Despite polling data revealing that the majority voters in Florida support sending migrants to other states, Pelosi claimed Friday that Floridians want the migrants to stay because they “need them to pick the crops.”

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“You see even in Florida, some of the farmers and the growers are saying, ‘Why are you shipping these immigrants up North? We need them to pick the crops down here,” Pelosi said.

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The new poll, conducted after DeSantis sent the migrants to Massachusetts, revealed that the Republican governor is still leading Florida’s gubernatorial race against opponent Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., 49% to 41%.

Illegal immigrants seek entry to the U.S. at the southern border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
(Fox News)

In August alone, over 200,000 illegal migrants were allowed through the southern border, bringing the total number of crossings to 2.1 million in fiscal year 2022. To best deal with the overflow of illegal migrants passing through into border states, GOP governors from Florida and Texas continue to send migrants to “sanctuary” cities whose leadership supports the open border policy, such as Washington, D.C.; New York; Chicago; and Martha’s Vineyard.

Former Democratic President Bill Clinton weighed in on the border crisis and the influx of migrant crossings. “There is a limit to how many migrants any society can take without severe disruption and assistance, and our system is based much more on an assumption that things would be more normal,” Clinton told CNN.

Migrants who recently arrived in the U.S. from Venezuela after crossing from Mexico wait to be assigned a hotel room provided by the El Paso Office of Emergency Management in Texas.
(Joe Raedl)

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The poll was conducted from Sept. 18-25, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. 

Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.