State officials have accused a contractor for a funded by the state Florida programme of moving the group who arrived at a Texas migrant centre under the false promise for jobs if the migrants agreed that they would be taken to California on a private chartered jet and dropped off outside an evangelical church in Sacramento on Friday. The migrants are from Venezuela and Colombia.
According to Mr. Bonta, who’s office is looking into the incident, the migrants who are unable to speak English were approached outside of El Paso and told “in broken Spanish” to sign the paperwork as a condition of getting on the plane to Sacramento. However, not all of the migrants understood where they were going, and thus, not all of them signed.
Similarly, conservative Republican governors have protested President Biden’s immigration policy by sending scores of migrants to Democratic-led states and localities with no reason or warning. In the autumn, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had two planes full of migrants from South America flown from San Antonio to the Democratic stronghold of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The planes were provided by Vertol Systems.
Vertol’s representatives, as well as those of Mr. DeSantis, a Republican whose presidential campaign has focused heavily on immigration, did not immediately answer to demands for comment. Mr. DeSantis has a fund-raiser planned for Sacramento on June 19 and has publicly sparred with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on immigration, and he often brings up his decision to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as an example of his tough stance.
Democrats Mr. Bonta and Mr. Newsom visited with the migrants on Saturday and promised to look after them as long as they stayed in the state.
Mr. Bonta revealed on Sunday that the gang had documented their travel with photographs and videos, including images of the persons who had spoken to them in Texas and accompanied them to Sacramento as their fear grew.
Mr. Bonta said that among the migrants was a teenager who turned 18 while on the trip and a father who abandoned six children in an effort to provide for his family. Many of the migrants had encountered each other along the way and grouped together for protection.
According to him, neither Florida nor Vertol was mentioned in the waivers that absolved them from responsibility in the earlier transport instances and that were carried by migrants.
According to Mr. Bonta, Florida officials would use the papers to support Mr. DeSantis’ claim that the migrants gave informed permission after the incident on Martha’s Vineyard. Mr. Bonta, though, stressed that they “weren’t fully informed and it wasn’t fully consensual.”
After arriving in New Mexico, the migrants boarded a chartered aircraft to Sacramento, where they were met by drivers from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento. The migrants were dropped off outside the church’s administration office with their possessions in backpacks and the assurance that someone would come retrieve them.
Sacramento ACT and other groups are attempting to provide safe homes for the migrants and provide guidance for their future actions. Mr. Bonta said that a number of the migrants have upcoming court cases in other states, some of which are within the next two weeks.
Mr. DeSantis sent dozens of South American migrants to the Democratic-leaning state to bring attention to an influx of migrants at the southern border, much like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, did last year by sending buses of migrants to Washington and New York.
The 49 migrants who flew on Vertol’s charter aircraft to Martha’s Vineyard allege that they were duped into boarding the aeroplanes with the promise of help upon their arrival. However, no one on the ground was aware of their arrival, which resulted in frantic efforts by local authorities to provide food and shelter and an intense reaction throughout the nation.
A lawsuit filed by the migrants against Mr. DeSantis and other state authorities is still ongoing. Many of the migrants are among the millions of individuals who have left Venezuela due to the country’s severe economic situation. According to public documents, the state spent at least $1.5 million on the migrant flight programme.
Mr. DeSantis and his fellow Florida Republican friends, though, have dug down on their stance. The state recently recruited three private contracting businesses, one of which is Vertol, to coordinate the migrant flight programme after lawmakers approved a $12 million budget to extend the programme this year.
