A U.S. migrant relief agency has sued Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis over two flights last week that brought some 50 unsuspecting migrants from Texas to Massachusetts. DeSantis moved the people under false pretenses, the indictment said.
Alianza Americas also believes that the flights were only for DeSantis’ own financial and political interests. The people involved did not know what they were participating in and were given a brochure in which false promises were made, the organization says on behalf of some migrants.
The organization says the migrants were recruited on the street near shelters in the Texas city of San Antonio. Governor officials promised to take them to Boston and Washington, where they would receive help. However, the two planes landed in Martha’s Vineyard, an affluent island in the predominately Democratic state of Massachusetts, which is home to only 17,000 people outside the peak season. There they were left to their own devices; late at night, without water or food and without anyone knowing of their arrival. Alianza Americas states that this was the intention of the employees of DeSantis from the beginning.
According to the organization, the state of Florida paid $615,000 (more than $616,000) for the two flights, which amounts to $12,300 per migrant. Most of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard have been given temporary shelter at an army base in Massachusetts’ Cape Cod.
DeSantis and his Republican colleagues from the border states of Texas and Arizona have recently taken thousands of migrants by bus to cities such as New York, Washington and Chicago. Those predominantly Democratic cities should bear the burden of Democratic President Joe Biden’s migration policy, according to Republican governors.
Police in San Antonio announced Monday they were opening a criminal investigation into the two flights to Martha’s Vineyard.
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