California Attorney General Rob Bonta is investigating whether the migrants recently flown by private plane to Sacramento without prior arrangements were part of a «scheme» by the state of Florida.
«We’re looking at movement in two separate instances of asylum seekers who were originally contacted in … El Paso, Texas, and then moved to New Mexico and then flew to Sacramento,» Bonta said in an interview Monday with KCRA, an NBC affiliate in Sacramento. «From what we can tell, it was all part of the same scheme, the same official policy of the state of Florida.»
It said the investigation could lead to «civil or criminal actions against the State of Florida or any of its employees or officers, as well as private vendors who were contracted by the State of Florida.»
In an earlier statement, Bonta said: «As we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy option, it is immoral and disgusting.»
Bonta’s office said the second plane landed in Sacramento on Monday with about 20 people and that the contractor operating it appeared to be the one that transported the first group of migrants on Friday.
«As was the case with the migrants who arrived on Friday, the migrants who arrived today were carrying documents indicating that their transportation to California involved the State of Florida,» Bonta’s office said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, last year brought 50 immigrants, most of them Venezuelans, from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, without warning. DeSantis said the flights were meant to highlight the crisis on the southern border, while Democrats and immigration activists said they turned vulnerable people into political pawns.
On Monday, the Bexar County, Texas, sheriff’s office said it recommended that the district attorney file criminal charges related to those flights.
“The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has officially filed a full criminal case with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office regarding the September 2022 incident in which 49 migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard,” it said. the sheriff’s office in a statement. “The charge filed is illegal. Seizures and several accounts were filed, both for misdemeanor and felony. Right now, the case is being reviewed by the prosecutor’s office.»
Although Florida’s migrant transport program has been largely inactive since last year’s flights, the DeSantis administration has quietly signaled that it could be restarted. He USA Today Network reported last month that the DeSantis administration chose three vendors, including Vertol Systems Co., which made the September flights to Martha’s Vineyard, to work with the migrant transfer program.
The Florida Legislature approved a bill in February that expanded DeSantis’s program that authorizes government officials to fly migrants to destinations in blue states that have sanctuary policies. The Republican-controlled Legislature awarded the DeSantis administration $10 million for the program in a special February legislative session and an additional $12 million in the recently concluded 2023 legislative session.
DeSantis also signed a sweeping immigration reform bill last month, weeks before he announced his presidential campaign and a day before the Biden administration ended Title 42, a covid restriction that made it easier to remove immigrants in the southern border.
Matt Dixon, rebecca shabad and Gabe Gutierrez contributed.