As new coronavirus cases surge across several southern states, Republican governors are looking to apportion blame – and resting upon some familiar targets.

In Florida, migrant Hispanic farm and construction workers are driving the huge uptick in Covid-19 infections, according to Governor Ron DeSantis, who has repeatedly identified the immigrant workforce as the “No 1” source of outbreaks in the Sunshine state.

Florida’s Covid-19 surge shows the state’s reopening plan is not working

Day laborers contracting the disease are “overwhelmingly Hispanic”, DeSantis said, and migrant in nature, adding that he had given a “heads-up” to health authorities in Georgia and Alabama about “what might be coming down the pike”.

DeSantis’s racially charged comments have been blasted as “shameful” by agricultural workers’ union leaders, who say the state has been lethargic in providing tests and resources to slow the spread. On Saturday, daily new cases in Florida surpassed 4,000 for the first time.

Meanwhile […]