EL PASO, Texas - The Attorney General of California is investigating whether any laws were broken when migrants processed and released by immigration authorities in El Paso were taken to New Mexico and put on charter flights to Sacramento.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration took responsibility for paying for the flights Tuesday after California’s attorney general Rob Bonta, a Democrat, announced his office would investigate the trips.
About 30 migrants flown to Sacramento were mostly from Central American countries, according to immigrant rights groups in California. They were required to sign consent and release forms before boarding a plane at the Deming Municipal Airport.
A private plane, big enough to carry 20 passengers, made two trips from El Paso, to Deming and then to Sacramento. The first flight departed on Friday and the second on Monday.
Florida’s actions caused an outcry from California’s Governor Gavin Newsom and immigrant rights groups in El Paso and Sacramento.
It’s not the first time the Republican controlled state of Florida funds chartered planes to take migrants from the Southern border to Democratic-led cities and states.
DeSantis’ administration could face felony charges for funding a private flights to take 50 migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard. On Monday, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office filed criminal charges of unlawful restraint against unnamed suspects involved in the flights to Massachusetts.
Florida’s Governor, is running for the Republican presidential nomination and touting his record on immigration policies in his state.
Under his administration, DeSantis pushed for anti-immigrant legislation in Florida that prohibited undocumented immigrants from driving in the state and that mandates hospitals to ask patients about their legal status.
And, he’s ordered more than 1,100 Florida National Guard members to assist fellow Republican Governor Greg Abbott in his border enforcement effort.
“It’s a political statement,” Fernando Garica, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights said. “It should be very clear that they are not doing it to be good human beings.”
According to migrants staying at a Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, a group of about five men arrived offering transportation, hotel rooms, jobs and free flights. Daniela, a migrant from Venezuela who declined to give her last name, said she was skeptical.
“They said they’d take you to a hotel and feed you before putting you on a flight,” she said.
About 30 migrants left with the men, according to migrants staying at Sacred Heart. They later required migrants to sign a travel consent form from the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The document is completely in English and says migrants would not be provided with any of the promises the men made to convince them to leave, a copy provided by immigrant rights groups showed.
“No representations or promises were made regarding employment, benefits, health care, immigration status, immigration assistance housing, clothing, food services or any consideration of any sort were made to me to obtain my consent to participate in this program, or to sign this consent and release,” the document states.
A spokeswoman for the State of Florida said migrants voluntarily got on the plane pushing back against allegations of wrongdoing. The private contractor also would not take any families with children.
Democrat U.S. Rep. for El Paso Veronica Escobar called the DeSantis administration's decision an "outrage," during a press conference on Thursday.
"He (DeSantis) is using vulnerable human beings as a political pawn. And he’s using the hard-earned dollars of Floridian taxpayers in order to do that. And the whole point is to further his campaign for president," she said.
Executive director of the Diocesan Migration and Refugee Services Melissa Lopez, says Florida’s actions should be investigated.
“If they were coerced by being provided fraudulent information that should be investigated and those individuals prosecuted,” Lopez said. “Whenever there is fraud involved in the coercion, I think that’s a further potential criminal act.”
A video posted on Rumble, a right leaning social media platform, shows migrants signing consent forms, riding to the Deming airport in a limo and their flight to Sacramento.
Florida Division of Emergency Management’s spokeswoman Alecia Collins referred to the video as proof of the Central American migrants’ satisfaction with the trip to California. It also has a video statement from one of the travelers giving thanks for the trip.
The video was not published by an official Florida government agency. Instead, it’s hosted by what appears to be a new user with no history on the site.
Collins said the Central American migrants opted to use the state’s “voluntary relocation” program.
“A contractor was present and ensured they made it safely to a 3rd-party NGO,” the statement said. “From left-leaning mayors in El Paso, Texas and Denver, Colorado, the relocation of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new. But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping.”
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser described the actions by Florida as a “political stunt.”
“If the reports are correct, we would encourage those that engaged in this practice in our city to cease doing so, and to treat each person as every human being deserves, with dignity and respect,” Leeser said.
