The White House is bracing for the arrival of migrants near President Biden’s vacation home in Delaware — amid reports that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expanding a relocation program that last week targeted a liberal enclave off the Massachusetts coast.
“We have received word of the flights,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a Tuesday afternoon briefing.
“We are coordinating closely with state officials and local service providers who are prepared to welcome these families in an orderly manner as they pursue their asylum claims.”
A charter jet that DeSantis used to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., was scheduled to take off Tuesday morning from San Antonio, Texas, and make a stop in Crestview, Florida, before landing at the Delaware Coastal Airport, according to the founder of the Popular Information newsletter.
The tiny airport, outside Georgetown, Del., is less than 20 miles from Rehoboth Beach, where Biden and first lady Jill Biden bought a $2.7 million vacation home just blocks from the Atlantic Ocean in 2017.
However, flight tracking sites listed the plane as delayed or with an “unknown” status and San Antonio Kelly Field airport confirmed to the Post no flight had taken off for Florida by midday, four hours after the plane was scheduled to depart.
This raised the possibility that authorities had intervened, or that the charter was a decoy.
DeSantis’ office didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
But on Monday night, DeSantis rejected the liberal outrage that greeted his Martha’s Vineyard flights.
Migrant crisis moves North: Here’s what’s happening around the country as border states bus migrants around the US
“Millions of people since Biden’s been president, illegally coming across the southern border. Did they freak out about that? No,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“You had migrants die in the Rio Grande. You had 50 die in Texas in a trailer because they were being neglected. Was there a freakout about that? No there wasn’t.”
DeSantis added: “It’s only when 50 get put into Martha’s Vineyard…And not only did they not welcome them, but they deported them the next day with the National Guard. Give me a break.”
A representative for the City of San Antonio said it had been discouraging migrants from accepting rides or assistance from strangers outside of its Migrant Resource Center.
US Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) said he had spoken to the city’s mayor and sheriff about DeSantis’ planned flight and blasted the Florida governor’s “continued use of false promises to lure people … onto planes” but did not say if he had intervened to stop the flight.
On Wednesday, DeSantis flew about 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts that’s become a favorite summer destination for left-leaning celebrities and Democratic politicians.
Former President Barack Obama vacationed there while he was in office and he and former first lady Michelle Obama bought an $11.75 million estate along the Edgartown Great Pond in 2019.
The migrants’ unexpected arrival caused chaos, with a local homeless shelter coordinator saying the liberal enclave didn’t “have the services to take care of 50 immigrants, and we certainly don’t have housing” — even though 63% of homes are owned by seasonal residents and there were reportedly nearly 300 available for rent on Airbnb.
Less than 48 hours later, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker called in the National Guard to move the migrants from Martha’s Vineyard to a military installation on Cape Cod.
Florida reportedly paid Vertrol Systems Co. $615,000 on Sept. 8 to handle the initial relocation and paid the company another $950,000 on Monday, bringing the total cost to more than $1.5 million.
The plane that’s bound for Delaware is a 30-passenger. twin-engine Dornier 328 Jet operated by the Ultimate Jet charter company of North Canton, Ohio, according to online records. Ultimate Charters declined to comment when approached by The Post.
The Bexar County Sherriff, Javier Salazar said he was investigating the Martha’s Vineyard flights, alleging that the migrants were “exploited and hoodwinked into making this trip.”