Florida officials confirmed Tuesday that the state arranged the charter flights that brought immigrants to Sacramento last Monday and Friday, generating outraged by the California authorities.
The statement from Florida’s Department of Emergency Management came a day after the California attorney general said he was considering legal action over the flights, which he said could amount to a “state-sanctioned hijacking.”
The Florida Division of Emergency Management said in the statement that the state’s resettlement program was voluntary, noting that there was verbal and written consent indicating the migrants’ desire to go to California.
Florida faced opposition from officials in both California and Texas, who said the flights may have been against the law.
Florida officials have justified arranging the migrants’ flights in the past. DeSantis, a presidential candidate and fierce critic of President Biden’s immigration policy, signed a bill in May allocating 12 million dollars to transport immigrants.
Rachel Mamie/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“From the left-leaning mayors of El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, moving those who illegally cross the US border is nothing new,” said a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. “But all of a sudden, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a reservation city, it’s a phony prison and kidnapping.”
On Monday, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas recommended that criminal charges be brought to the local district attorney Immigrant Journeys to Martha’s Vineyard Ranked by Florida in September 2022.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office alleged that unlawful restraint was involved in the immigrants’ journeys. Officials said they are looking into how this happened immigrants from the Immigrant Resource Center, located in Bexar County, Texas, and were flown to Florida, where they were eventually left to fend for themselves in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.”
forty nine The immigrants were flown in to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts in September 2022, some of whom said they experienced emotional trauma as a result. At the time, DeSantis’ communications director said the flights were part of an effort to “move illegal immigrants to safe destinations.”
Under Texas law, someone can be charged Illegal restraint If they “restrict a person’s movements without his consent, so as to interfere substantially with the person’s liberty, by moving the person from one place to another or by restricting him.” Self-restraint is considered without consent if it is carried out by force, intimidation or deception.
It is not yet clear if the District Attorney for the Bexar Criminal District, Joe D.
“If a review of the facts reveals that a criminal offense was committed, we will bring this case to a grand jury for deliberation,” Gonzalez said.
DeSantis has yet to respond directly to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, but on Tuesday his office released a statement promoting Florida. Register with Texas Immigration Assistanceincluding the arrest of more than 190 people.
Florida teams contacted more than 5,800 undocumented immigrants and assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety with more than 190 arrests, including criminal charges of human trafficking, drug paraphernalia, illegal weapons possession, and a suspect for whom a death warrant was issued. “. The statement said.
Florida governor He was also sued Because of the Martha’s Vineyard incident, but a federal judge dismissed the case.
California Attorney General Rob Ponta, a spokesman, said Monday that the migrants who were flown to Sacramento carried “documentation indicating that their transfer to California related to the state of Florida.” After the first flight landed, Ponta said his office was searching A criminal or civil case is possible Against those who transported immigrants or arranged their transportation. Ponta said that evidence has been collected.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said the migrants on Friday’s flight to Sacramento came from Texas.
“These individuals were flown from Texas to New Mexico before being flown on a private chartered plane to Sacramento and dumped on the doorstep of a local church without any prior warning,” Newsom said.
Newsom chirp about DeSantis on Monday, calling him a “pathetic little guy.”
“This is not Martha’s Vineyard,” he wrote on Twitter. “Kidnapping accusations?”
The tweet included a link to the California law on kidnapping and a photo of the legislation.
“Any person who, outside this case, abducts or takes by force or fraud any person contrary to the law of the place where he commits that act, and brings, sends, or transports such person within the limits of that case, and thereafter falls within its limits, is guilty of kidnapping.”
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