Migrants Flown By DeSantis Can Sue FL Charter Flight Company: Report
Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida officials are accused of flying about 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard, MA, in 2022. A federal judge in Boston has ruled that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue FL Charter Flight Company for transporting Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard. The migrants, who were flown from a shelter in San Antonio, Texas, were told they would receive work and housing opportunities. The ruling alleges that Deantis, who has criticized President Joe Biden's federal immigration policy, and other Florida officials, arranged to learn about immigration issues in Texas in 2021 to learn how he could get involved. The financing for the flights came from the General Revenue Fund allocated to the Florida Department of Transportation for "immigrant relocation." Criminal charges were recommended in connection with the Martha's Vyard case, but have now been passed to the Bexar County District Attorney.
Published : a month ago by Amanda Lumpkin in Travel Politics
BOSTON, MA — A federal judge in Boston has ruled that dozens of Venezuelan migrants who were flown to Martha's Vineyard by Gov. Ron DeSantis can sue the charter flight company, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
DeSantis has criticized President Joe Biden's federal immigration policy and has heavily publicized Florida's role in past instances in which migrants were transported to Democratic-led states. DeSantis and other Florida officials have remained mum, as they initially were in 2022 when they flew about 50 Venezuelan migrants to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, luring them onto private jets from a shelter in San Antonio, Texas.
The Associated Press reported the migrants were told they would receive work and housing opportunities. They are now allowed to sue "Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which had agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars," the Associated Press. In the 77-page ruling, a curious DeSantis was accused of sending his team members to Texas in summer 2021 to learn how he could get involved with immigration issues.
"Shortly thereafter, he, (Florida Public Safety Czar Lawrence) Keefe and (DeSantis' Chief of Staff James) Uthmeier purportedly 'hatched a scheme . . . to send immigrants to the
northeast United States and profit from the ensuing media coverage,'" read the ruling. It stated financing to fly the migrants came from the General Revenue Fund, which had been allocated to the Florida Department of Transportation for "immigrant relocation."
In a past statement to the Miami Herald, the Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Texas confirmed that criminal charges were recommended in connection with the Martha's Vineyard case. The case was then passed to the Bexar County District Attorney, the Herald previously reported.
Topics: Lawsuits