Florida shipped asylum seekers to California
Newsome suggests he could pursue kidnapping charges
SACRAMENTO — The state of Florida picked up asylumseekers on the Texas border Monday and took them by private jet to California’s capital city at taxpayer expense for the second time in four days, California officials said, prompting allegations that the migrants were misled and catching shelters and aid workers by surprise.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials were mum, as they were initially last year when they flew 49 Venezuelan migrants to the upscale Massachusetts enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, luring them onto private jets from a shelter in San Antonio.
As California Attorney General Rob Bonta investigated the migrants’ transportation, local officials and faith-based groups sought to provide housing, food, and other resources to the more than three dozen new arrivals. Many were from Colombia and Venezuela, and California had not been their intended destination.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, lashed out at DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man” and suggested the state could pursue kidnapping charges.
And as the migrants arrived in California, a Texas sheriff 's office announced Monday it has recommended criminal charges over the two flights to Martha's Vineyard last year.
Johnny Garcia, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff ’s Office, said at this time they are not naming suspects. It’s not clear whether the district attorney will pursue the charges, which include misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint, according to the sheriff ’s office.
The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have previously sent thousands of migrants on buses to New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., but the rare charter flights by DeSantis mark an escalation in tactics. The two groups sent to Sacramento never went through Florida. Instead, they were approached in El Paso by people with Florida-linked paperwork, sent to New Mexico, then put on the private flights to Sacramento, California officials said.
DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president, has been a fierce critic of federal immigration policy under President Biden and has heavily publicized Florida’s role in past instances in which migrants were transported to Democratic-led states.
He has made the migrant relocation program one of his signature political priorities, using the state legislative process to direct millions of dollars to it and working with multiple contractors to carry out the flights. Vertol Systems Co., which was paid by Florida to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, appears to be behind the flights to Sacramento, California officials said. The company didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
In Sacramento, the flight that arrived Monday with about 20 migrants followed the arrival Friday of 16 others from Colombia and Venezuela. The newest arrivals remained at the airport for a couple of hours and were fed before being transported to a “religious institution,” said Kim Nava, a Sacramento County spokeswoman.