Twenty-eight people have been arrested for looting in Lee County, the county hit hardest by Hurricane Ian — three of whom were singled out by Gov. Ron DeSantis in press conferences. The three individuals have one thing in common: They are in the country illegally. DeSantis was quick to underscore the immigration status of three suspects during a press conference on Oct. 4 in Fort Myers, where he provided updates on the hurricane recovery process. DeSantis said that four people had been arrested at that point on charges related to looting, but subsequent records show at least eight arrests had been made by then.

“Three of the four are illegal aliens,” DeSantis said five minutes into the press conference. “These are people that are foreigners. They are illegally in our country — and not only that — they try to loot and ransack in the aftermath of a natural disaster. They should be prosecuted, but they need to be sent back to their home country.

Over the summer, DeSantis highlighted a law enforcement operation in Northwest Florida, led by his administration, that resulted in the arrests of “illegal aliens” and the recovery of “enough fentanyl to kill off 2,000 people in the state of Florida.” However, he did not mention that the vast majority of the 22 arrests were not related to immigration but rather tied to men and women who live in the country legally. DeSantis also implied that undocumented migrants had been arrested on drug-related crimes, when none were, according to arrest records obtained by the Herald/Times.

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