Second flight arrives in Sacramento with migrants with Florida documents

SAN FRANCISCO, June 5 (Reuters) – A flight carrying about 20 migrants landed in Sacramento, California on Monday as state authorities investigated the role Florida had played in transporting them from Texas through New Mexico, according to the office of the California attorney general and news. reports.

The migrants were carrying documents indicating their transportation involved the state of Florida, the California attorney general’s office said. More than a dozen immigrants who arrived Friday had similar documentation, the office said.

The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican seeking his party’s 2024 presidential nomination, last year orchestrated a flight of dozens of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a liberal Massachusetts vacation island, which critics They called it a political stunt.

DeSantis said at the time that his administration brought Texas migrants to the escape island because many of the migrants coming to Florida come from Texas.

Since then, groups representing those immigrants have filed a lawsuit alleging they were misled. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in Texas led an investigation and recommended that the county file criminal charges, including felony and misdemeanor unlawful restraint, it said in a statement Monday.

DeSantis’s office did not respond to requests for comment about the Sacramento flights.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called DeSantis a “pathetic little man” in a tweet, adding: “This is not Martha’s Vineyard.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said over the weekend that his office was investigating how migrants were being transported into the state, including whether criminal or civil charges were warranted.

“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,” he said in a statement Saturday.

Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature approved an immigration bill in May that sets aside $12 million for the state to transport immigrants, among other measures aimed at deterring illegal immigration.

Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Edited by Rosalba O’Brien

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