Florida officials confirmed Tuesday that the state organized the chartered flights that brought the migrants to Sacramento last Monday and Friday, generating indignation of the California authorities.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management’s statement came a day after California’s attorney general said it was considering legal action over the flights, which it said could amount to a “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”
The Florida Division of Emergency Management said in the statement that the state’s relocation program was voluntary, noting that there was verbal and written consent indicating that the migrants wanted to go to California.
Florida has faced pushback from officials in both California and Texas, who have said the flights may be breaking the law.
Florida officials have justified organizing migrant flights in the past. DeSantis, a presidential candidate and fierce critic of President Biden’s immigration policy, signed a bill in May that would assign 12 million dollars for the transport of migrants.
Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“From left-wing mayors in El Paso, Texas, to Denver, Colorado, the relocation of those illegally crossing the U.S. border is nothing new,” said a spokesman for the Division of Emergency Management from Florida. “But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping.”
On Monday, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas recommended criminal charges to the local district attorney migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard hosted by Florida in September 2022.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has alleged that there were illegal restrictions on the migrant flights. Officials have said they are investigating how migrants “were attracted from the Migrant Resource Center, located in Bexar County, TX, and moved to Florida, where they were finally released on their own in Martha’s Vineyard, MA.”
forty nine migrants were flown on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts in September 2022, with some of them saying they suffered emotional trauma as a result. At the time, DeSantis’ communications director said the flights were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”
Under Texas law, anyone can be charged illegal restraint if they “restrict a person’s movements without consent, so as to substantially interfere with the person’s liberty, by moving him from one place to another or by confining him.” Restraint is considered to be without consent if it is obtained by force, intimidation or deception.
It is not yet clear whether Bexar County Criminal District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales will pursue charges or who they will be brought against, but he said his office was thoroughly reviewing the case.
“If a review of the facts reveals that a criminal offense has been committed, we will present this case to a grand jury for deliberation,” Gonzales said.
DeSantis has yet to respond directly to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, but on Tuesday his office issued a statement touting the Florida situation. record of assistance to Texas immigration authoritiesincluding with more than 190 arrests.
“Teams in Florida have contacted more than 5,800 undocumented migrants and assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety with more than 190 arrests, including felony charges of human trafficking, drug paraphernalia, carrying il· gun license and a suspect with a warrant for capital murder.” said the statement.
The governor of Florida was also sued about the Martha’s Vineyard incident, but a federal judge dismissed the case.
On Monday, a spokesman for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the migrants transported to Sacramento were carrying “documents indicating that their transportation to California involved the state of Florida.” After the first flight landed, Bonta said his office was investigating possible criminal or civil action against those who transported the migrants or organized their transport. Bonta said evidence was being collected.
The migrants on Friday’s plane to Sacramento originated in Texas, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
“These individuals were flown from Texas to New Mexico before being flown by private jet to Sacramento and dropped on the doorstep of a local church without any warning,” Newsom said.
Newsom he tweeted about DeSantis on Monday, calling him a “pathetic little man.”
“This is not Martha’s Vineyard,” he tweeted. “Kidnapping charges?”
The tweet included a link to California’s kidnapping legislation and an image of the legislation.
“Every person who, being outside this state, abducts or takes by force or fraud any person contrary to the law of the place where such act is committed, and carries, sends or conveys him within the limits of ‘this state, and then is within the limits thereof, is guilty of kidnapping,’ the law says.
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Aliza Chasan
