Florida homeowners forced to clean up boat that migrants abandoned on their property
A local Florida news station interviewed a husband and wife who said they were forced to pay to have a migrant boat removed from their property, or risk a felony.
A local Florida news station interviewed a couple who said they were forced to pay to have a Cuban boat removed from their property, or risk a felony.
One Florida homeowner, Jack Bartkus, explained that he was left to deal with the seacraft after "about 20 people that rode on this boat from Cuba and [the government] took the people into custody [but] they didn’t do anything with the boat."
"They left it here and just discarded it," Bartkus said. "So it became my problem."
Multiple boats carrying migrants have landed on Florida shores, leaving local residents to deal with the mess. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images | REUTERS/Adrees Latif TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
"It’s unfair. Totally unfair," he added.
Bartkus also told Miami news channel WSVN that he was forced to pay to "clean and sterilize the boat," a process that cost him at least "$2,500."
"There’s diesel fuel on there," he said. "You can’t have an oil spill and to have this thing floating out on the water, it’s unsafe for other people."
Key Colony Beach officials told local residents in a letter that migrant boats were their problem, not the government’s. "[I]f any vessel ends up on your private property [it] becomes your problem. This rule of law is both inconvenient and a bit expensive, but it is the law."
One Florida couple had to pay $2,500 to "clean and sterilize" an abandoned migrant boat.
"It’s a very frustrating situation," Sue Bartkus said.
She said that she and her husband were threatened with a possible felony charge if they didn’t prevent the boat from floating out to sea.
"So you’re just supposed to let it destroy your pier, your docks, your seawalls, and you’re supposed to have to get rid of it," she noted, summing up the gap in responsibility between homeowners and migrants.
Christina Pushaw, Rapid Response Director for Gov. Ron DeSantis, responded to the video on Twitter on Wednesday.
"This is completely unfair. DHS should be paying for this," she wrote, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.
Pushaw also shared a video of DeSantis addressing the migrant boat crisis directly.
"There’s vessels left everywhere [on] people’s property," DeSantis said. "We declared a state of emergency. We provided [the] Coast Guard the assistance that they’ve asked for. We are going to clear the vessels free of charge for those residents because it wasn’t their fault."
"Maybe we’ll send the bill to [President] Biden. We’ll see," DeSantis added.
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"The day after this came to our attention, the Florida Division of Emergency Management reached out to the homeowners and made them whole," DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin told Fox News Digital.
This article was updated with a comment from DeSantis' office.
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