(light music) - [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- Coming up right now on WEDU, the turmoil in Haiti has Florida officials preparing for an influx of refugees escaping the violence.

Donald Trump wins the GOP Presidential Primary in Florida, but without campaigning, Nikki Haley gets 14% of the vote.

USF students protest the university's ties to companies that are profiting from the war in Gaza.

And there's not enough support on the Hillsborough County Commission to commend this weekend's pride event in Tampa.

All this and more next on "Florida This Week."

(light tense music) Welcome back.

Famine and violence are sweeping through the country of Haiti.

The US government has warned US citizens there to leave the Caribbean nation.

So far, there's not been a mass exodus of Haitians to Florida, but Governor Ron DeSantis says if Haitians arrive in Florida, he might transfer them to Martha's Vineyard, which is what he did when his administration found about 50 undocumented immigrants in Texas two years ago, and paid to fly them to Massachusetts.

That was expensive.

It cost Florida taxpayers $35,000 per immigrant.

Now the governor's launched what he calls Operation Vigilant Sentry, which is designed to keep Haitian refugees from making landfall and finding a haven here in the Sunshine State.

He's deployed 250 state officers, mostly members of the Florida State Guard, to try to block Haitian refugees from coming here.

And joining us now to discuss the situation is Shalyn Fluharty, an immigration attorney and advocate.

And Shalyn, welcome back to "Florida This Week."

Good to see you.

- Thank you, it's great to be here.

- Alright, so the governor says he might send some of these Haitians if they come, they haven't come yet in big numbers, he might send them to Martha's Vineyard.

He's also sent about 250 state officers down to Southeast Florida to try to push the Haitians back to their home country.

What do you make of that policy?

- I think a lot of this dialogue is really political posturing.

It's really disconnected from the operational response that's both federal and state in collaboration that exists through something called Operation Vigilant Sentry, which is a inter-agency task force that for a long time has created procedures for dealing with maritime mass migration.

What's important for people to know is that the way that the US Coast Guard patrols international waters allows them to interdict individuals, typically who are traveling by sea in the territorial waters of other countries.

This means that the Coast Guard might be picking up individuals who are traveling by sea right close to Haiti, or right close to The Bahamas.

And truly it's this interdiction that's very far from Florida land that prevents people, much sooner than their arrival to Florida, from ever making it here.

So, as we think about whether or not we'll see individuals from Haiti who are kind of arriving in the masses to Florida, it's so incredibly unlikely based upon decades of operational realities at sea that make it more likely that individuals would be dropped off in The Bahamas or dropped off directly in Haiti which, as you know, is an incredible problem.

- So what the governor's doing is really not gonna make an impact if Haitians decide to come here.

- Right, I mean, what we know is that US Coast Guard officials actually interdict individuals at sea.

And that under Operation Vigilant Sentry and circumstances like this, the plan for a very long time has been to place individuals who have protection claims and need immediate protection in Guantanamo Bay.

And that's actually a very concerning reality because in a place like Guantanamo Bay, the conditions are so deplorable.

You know, people are left there without access to council.

They're left without really just basic necessities that are needed to provide a real humanitarian response in the face of what's happening in Haiti.

- So the governor says that if some Haitians come here, he may send them up to Martha's Vineyard.

I know that we have hundreds of thousands of Haitians already living here in Florida.

What do you make of the governor's statement that he's gonna send, if we get new arrivals, he's gonna send 'em up to Massachusetts?

- Well, it's actually another kind of interesting statement from the governor's office because we know that that particular action by the state of Florida, transporting migrants to Martha's Vineyard, that one flight led to significant litigation, including litigation that, you know, really has led the state to stop taking that course.

You know, that was expensive misuse of taxpayer funding and dollars.

You know, we have lots of challenges and needs here in Florida.

Floridians deserve the state's full attention and support.

And so, you know, this kind of rhetoric is both disconnected from the reality, but also certainly forgetful of litigation history that has really kind of asked the governor to reconsider those actions and, indeed, prevented him from flying more individuals to places like Martha's Vineyard.

- So what do you think the US policy should be?

Well, rather, what should the Florida policy be towards the possible arrival of Haitian refugees?

- Right, so, you know, there are three specific things that our federal government should do.

First, all forced returns to Haiti must stop, both removal flights from the United States and repatriations to Haiti through subsequent to maritime migration.

We know that there is no Haitian government in this moment to receive people.

And we know also it's a humanitarian crisis.

And Haiti needs access to things like their airport and their port to facilitate, you know, arrival of medical aid, of food, of other things.

And repatriations to Haiti not only places people in danger, but really forget the real realities of Haiti to ensure that we're supporting Haiti in this time of crisis.

In addition, the federal government should stop all plans to detain Haitians at Guantanamo Bay, and vulnerable populations in particular.

Children, for example, families with young children should not be placed in a location like Guantanamo Bay.

We should think about where we can place individuals in vulnerable populations, in particular, where they'll have access to the care that they desperately need.

And in addition, the government should prioritize at all levels safety and family reunification for Haitians here in the United States.

And there's real easy ways that the government can do this.

It can expedite and expand parole processing for Haitians to ensure that, you know, we're lifting the cap of Haitians that can come to the United States quickly rather than taking dangerous journeys by sea or by land.

And we can extend and re-designate temporary protected status for Haitians.

This helps individuals who are in real danger, it promotes family unity, but also it's, in some ways, a meaningful cure to what's happening in Haiti.

We know that when Haitians are in our community and they have access to something like a work permit, they're sending remittances back to Haiti that are helping people in Haiti buy, you know, the things that they desperately need in this time of curfew and violence that's really uncontrollable.

So those would be the recommendations, and they're certainly within the power of our federal government.

- Well, let's hope the situation in Haiti gets better.

So far the refugees haven't arrived in big numbers.

Shalyn Fluharty, thank you for joining us on "Florida This Week."

- Yes, of course.

Thank you.

(light music) - Joining us on the panel this week, Brittany Jean is the president of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.

Ben Montgomery is an author and independent journalist.

Yacob Reyes is a Tampa Bay reporter for "Axios."

And Reverend Andy Oliver is the pastor of the Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg.

Nice to have you all here, and good to meet you too.

- Thanks for having us.

- Good to be here.

- Well, let's get some election news.

Former President Donald Trump won Tuesday's Florida Presidential Primary election with 81% of the vote.

That was a 12-point drop from 2020 when he won the primary with 93%.

Former South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, who had suspended her campaign two weeks ago, finished second with 14% of the vote.

And Governor Ron DeSantis, who withdrew from the race in January, came in third with 3%.

So, Brittany, what does it say?

The Democrats said this week that one in five Republican voters voted against Donald Trump.

So the Democrats say it's bad news for Donald Trump, the outcome of Tuesday's election.

What do you say?

- Right, I don't think that's necessarily true.

Obviously when Florida's early ballots went out, Nikki Haley was still in the race, so she was still there for people to vote for.

Coming into November, we knew that Donald Trump was going to be our nominee.

Everybody kind of knew it.

I was a big DeSantis fan.

Campaigned for him, worked for him.

And, you know, the writing was on the wall.

So come November, we would much rather see Donald Trump in the White House than Joe Biden.

And obviously there will be a few Republicans that refuse to vote for him, but he's gonna win Florida in a landslide.

And this election, the 20% that he didn't get is not going to make him lose that.

- And what's your take on the numbers out of Tuesday for the Republicans?

- You know, I think that Republicans registered 600,000 new voters between 2018 and 2022.

Those two gubernatorial elections, if you recall, DeSantis squeaked by in 2018, won by 1.9% of the vote over his opponent, the mayor of Tallahassee.

2022, over a much better known opponent, Charlie Crist, he blew him away, won by nearly 20 percentage points.

That's because a huge number, half a million or more Republicans, registered to vote in those four years.

Most of it was during COVID when our governor DeSantis was on the television, mostly on "Fox News," speaking to the nation, inviting Republicans to move to Florida to enjoy our openness.

They did in great number.

And so in 2024, I think Florida's no longer gonna be a purple state.

It's not really gonna be a race.

I think Donald Trump will, for better or for worse, win the state of Florida, hands down.

- Andy, lemme read something that Ron DeSantis said about the race on Tuesday.

And the Democrats did have some setbacks.

They lost some mayoral races, they lost some city council races, places like Apopka, Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Delray Beach.

Democrats had some setbacks.

And this is what Ron DeSantis said.

He said, "The Florida Democratic Party is like the best opposition party we could ever ask for.

They canceled their presidential primary because they feared Biden may get embarrassed by not getting a high enough percentage.

And what did that do?

That totally tanked their turnout."

Was it a mistake for the Democrats not to have a presidential primary here in Florida?

- Well, I saw, Brittany, on your Twitter, you referred to their election as a bloodbath (laughs) - [Brittany] (laughs) Yeah.

- For the Democrats.

And, you know, it's like you Republicans are throwing that word bloodbath around like it's, you know, confetti at a insurrection party or something.

But the truth is, Florida Dems had a lot of good wins also in places that weren't Nancy Pelosi territory, like Kenneth City's mayor, city council for Pinellas Park, Gulfport, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar.

And I think to your point, it's all gonna depend if we get abortion on the ballot.

If abortion gets on the ballot, anything could happen.

And in my own city we'll get to vote for people like Nick Carey for City Council.

So I'm feeling very encouraged.

- A very progressive candidate.

- Absolutely.

- It could also have recreational marijuana on the ballot, which might pull out more Democrats.

- Yacob, do you think the Florida Supreme Court is gonna decide to put the abortion issue on the ballot?

I mean, you know, it's unfair to ask a reporter to make a prediction, but what's your take on that?

- Well, I mean, they have until April 1st to decide.

I mean, given like some of the concerns, like when I spoke to some lawyers, like not including a definition of viability in the ballot initiative could prove fatal in this instance.

So I think, you know, the court stacked with DeSantis appointees, I think it's, you know, it's anyone's guess, but I don't want to say that I think it looks particularly well.

- Okay, alright.

Well let's move to our next topic.

In Tampa, 18 university of South Florida students have started a hunger strike to protest the school's investments in companies that they say are helping arm Israel's war in Gaza.

The students, many of whom are members of the group's Students for Socialism, presented their demands to the USF Board of trustees this week.

The group wants University President Rhea law to publicly call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

They also want USF to stop investing in five companies, Boeing, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Caterpillar, which supply military equipment to Israel.

- For decades, students have been pleading for divestment, and you have ignored every plea - As the death toll increases, so do USF's profits.

But you know this.

You know this and you ignore it anyways.

- Just for the record, we don't invest any of those companies directly, so please don't go on a hunger strike for that because you'LL be waiting a long time.

- Andy, you talked to some of the students, what did they tell you about the reasons for the hunger strike?

- Yeah, I talked to them, I learned that they're doing this to offer their solidarity for those in Gaza that don't have food and water.

I learned that they felt inspired to do this by students that came before them in the '80s.

Students all over the country who organized for divestment, which put pressure on South Africa to end apartheid.

They also told me they really want people to follow their Instagram, USF Hunger Strike.

And I also reached out to Palestinian American friends who feel incredibly isolated and unheard.

Many of them have family members who have died or are in harm's way.

Some of them are survivors of genocide themselves.

And, you know, what the students are doing, I think we're gonna look back 30 years from now, just like we can look at the students of the '80s and what they did to influence South Africa, I think we're gonna see these students as truth tellers and freedom fighters just as we think about Nelson Mandela today.

- Hmm, Brittany, what's your take on the students calling for divestment and the ceasefire?

- The story's about 18 students.

USF has a 3% Jewish population in their students.

So if you're thinking about these 18 students versus over 1,200 Jewish students that they're going to make feel isolated and alienated if they did go along with this, I mean, that's a huge portion of their campus.

And then, like he said, they're not investing directly in these companies, right?

These big colleges, corporations, they have money in portfolios who are then invested by other people, other stockholders.

So it's not even like the school can really purposely pull out the money from each of those companies.

They're gonna have to change their entire portfolio, which could harm the school in the long run.

And, you know, USF is up and coming.

They're trying to build a new football stadium, they're trying to be on the national map.

And if they're moving their money around like this, you know, that could really impact the future of all the students.

- Ben, universities, should they take a position on moral questions?

And is this a moral question that USF should take a position on?

- It's really interesting.

It's interesting to see this playing out in the national news, primarily focused on Harvard, which it's Board of Governors just decided the other day to change their policy to basically be neutral on political issues, especially important political issues like this.

I don't know if it's the place of a university to decide, especially a university with a, you know, vast amount of different ideologies that they must represent.

I'm not sure though that's what the students are asking.

They're just asking specifically for USF to divest in these five specific countries.

It's interesting, the Board Chairman is Will Weatherford who's made a career in investments.

This is what he does.

He's saying it's state law, they can't divest.

So he's encouraging the students, you know, not to go to these lengths because it's out of their hands.

I'm not sure if that's actually the case.

I wonder how this will play out.

I wonder if USF does have something, some control over where they put their money.

- Yacob, to Brittany's point, there are lots of Jewish students on campus, as she pointed out.

I imagine if you took a survey, you might find that there's a split among the Jewish community about whether or not Netanyahu's policies are correct.

There are a lot of students with Arab backgrounds and Muslim backgrounds on the USF campus as well, and they might be split too.

- Yeah, I mean, I think looking also just more broadly, I mean, the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners recently revised their policy so that they could be able to invest in Israel, right?

Miami-Dade County upped their investment in Israel bonds, like after this war, in a show of support.

The state of Florida upped their investment in Israel bonds in a show of support.

So I think what we're seeing is a pressure point being consistently pushed, right?

And these students are living, right, here in this community and they're looking at an avenue in which they feel they have more control in their university.

So, I mean, I think it's difficult to say whether a decision like this would be alienating.

I mean, going back to the fact that the state of Florida is doing this, and I wonder how many people who live here would feel opposed to what those investments are, you know?

And the question to fiduciary duty, I think it's also like worth considering that, like, the state of Florida said that it would be against their fiduciary duty to divest in Russia, and yet they're investing more and more in Israel.

So I just think like, when it comes to this, I think it's really in the weeds, and I guess we'll see what happens.

- But to invest in Israel is taking a side in the conflict.

- No, definitely.

I think it makes sense that the students would link investment in Israel to support of Israel, because that's literally what our CFO Jimmy Patronis said.

- Right, well, and we have to think about how the war started, right?

There are still hostages being held.

So when you're talking about, you know, these students, they feel alienated and upset, and you talk to, you know, Palestinian Americans, what about families of the people who are still held hostage?

What about people who knew them?

I mean, they're still there.

That's what this war was about.

And the students are demanding that the school say that there should be a ceasefire.

So they are demanding that the school take a position on this, a political position.

It's not just that they want them to divest, they want the school to stand up and say, "We want a ceasefire," but they're not considering, you know, why this actually started to begin with.

- And, Andy, October 7th was certainly a horrible assault on civilians, totally unnecessary.

But at the same time, since then, more than 30,000 people, civilians have been killed in Gaza.

Like, I wonder at what point has the war gone too far?

- As a pacifist, I'm often asked, even by some of my rabbi colleagues, "What would you have us do instead?"

And that assumes that as a follower of Jesus, I have to have another position other than peace.

And I happen to think that a position of peace is the right position, no matter what.

And I think there are ways that we can look back through history and see where conflicts even larger than this have been resolved through nonviolent resistance.

And I just happen to believe that's the way.

I certainly want hostages to be returned, but I think we have a moral obligation at this point to all be demanding a ceasefire.

- Okay, well, for the first time in 10 years, the Hillsborough County Commission will not present a commendation to the organizers of this year's Pride Parade in Ybor City.

That's because the commission has a new policy, as "Creative Loafing" reported this week.

The new policy enacted last September requires six signatures for commendations that are deemed controversial or sensitive because they address matters of political controversy, ideological or religious beliefs, one's individual conviction, or address matters which do not serve a public interest.

Only four commissioners signed the commendation.

Three Democrats, Pat Kemp, Harry Cohen, and Gwen Myers, and one Republican, Board Chairman Ken Hagan.

Three other board members, all Republicans, Joshua Wostal, Michael Owen, and Donna Cameron Cepeda did not.

So, Yacob, my question is sort of adding onto what Ben said, if you've got this influx of Republicans, you've got a bigger Republican influence in Hillsborough County, the county is turning red as we speak, is this the trend of the future to see things that were commonplace over the last nine years now not be so commonplace?

- I think definitely.

I mean, Democrats still have a voter registration advantage in Hillsborough, but what we've seen here is that voter turnout among Republicans is just much, much higher.

And so this new commission, this new majority has already taken a lot of steps to kind of change things that used to be commonplace.

I mean, all the way down to like funding of the arts, the stadiums, affordable housing.

They've made multiple efforts to axe that and to wade into certain fights like restricting access to certain library books, et cetera.

So I think that Hillsborough County is definitely trending that way.

- Hmm, Brittany, is this the right position to take?

Should they not sign the commendation because the commendations controversial in some quarters in Hillsborough County?

- Yeah, I mean, again, I think the government should stay out of issues like this.

You know, everyone talks about how they want the government to stay outta their lives, stay outta their personal lives.

You know, Pride is clearly how people live their lives.

It's who they're attracted to, who they're married to, how they celebrate their sexuality.

The government should have no place in that.

So I think that it's the right position.

And, you know, we worked extremely hard, the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, to flip the Hillsborough County Commission this year.

Joshua Wostal is a member of our organization.

And so, you know, we back him and the other Republicans on this move.

Clearly, you know, Tampa Pride is a huge event and it's celebrated and it has been for a really long time, but the government does not need to be involved in it.

- Ben, would you agree?

- I just keep asking why this is controversial still.

Like, (laughs) why are we still in a position where we are deciding whether someone's lifestyle is or is not up to our standards?

And that's what they're doing.

They're saying in this instance, by not signing this, that they disagree with the Pride Parade.

And if you've ever been to the Pride Parade, there's no better celebration of humanity, of coexistence, of fun, peace.

(laughs) This is a good thing and should be, you know, should be commended when given the opportunity.

I think there's a wrong track.

It feels old and dated and musty, and I'm surprised that young Republicans are involved.

- Okay, before we go, what other news stories should we be paying attention to?

Brittany, let's start with you.

What other thing happened this week that we should be talking about?

- Well, so we've, you know, talked about Haiti, and we talked about Israel Congressman Cory Mills who is a congressman here in Florida, he has been using his own fund and connections with a lot of different military organizations to rescue people from these countries.

I think he's done two missions to Haiti where he has rescued individuals and brought them back to the United States.

He did the same thing in Israel, and he did the same thing in Ukraine.

- Alright, Ben, you're other big story.

- I'm paying attention to whether Governor DeSantis signs the Victims Relief Bill for the Dozier School for Boys, which would give a chunk of money, probably a small chunk of money, to anybody who was at the Dozier School for Boys outside of Marianna between 1940 and 1975.

These guys have been fighting for this compensation for a very long time.

It finally passed unanimously the House and the Senate, it just awaits the governor's signature.

- Alright, and Yacob, your other big story of the week.

- I'm keeping an eye on Florida Democrats who this Sunday are going to decide whether the suspensions of local party chairs in Miami Dade are gonna be upheld or not.

- Big move by Nikki, free to suspend three party chairs.

- In an election year at that.

- Yeah, and Andy, your other big story of the week?

- It's Heriberto Alejandro Sanchez-Mayen.

He's a St. Pete resident, was homeless, was in a field sleeping by himself, and two police officers came, arrested him nine months ago.

Took joy in it, threw him in the back of a transport vehicle, didn't strap him in, and gave him what they call a Rough Ride.

They slammed the brakes, they hit the gas.

You can watch the video, he flew from the back of the transport vehicle to the front and was paralyzed, and now has had to be his legs amputated.

This was the second time this police officer driving the vehicle injured a man who was homeless, and no disciplinary action was taken.

These officers are still on patrol.

This is a modern-day attempted lynching, and we have to have accountability and do better.

- And I've seen the video.

The man is standing up before he enters the police car, he looks perfectly healthy, but he exits the police car unconscious and unable to move.

- This is what happens when our state laws and our city laws dehumanize the unhoused.

- Thank you all for a great show, and thank you for watching.

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