California investigating whether DeSantis involved in flying asylum-seekers from Texas to Sacramento
Officials were investigating Tuesday whether Florida's Gov. Ron DeSantis was behind a flight that picked up asylum-seekers on the Texas border and flew them 바카라 게임 웹사이트 apparently without their knowledge 바카라 게임 웹사이트 to California's capital, even as faith-based groups scrambled to find housing and food for them.
About 20 people ranging in age from 21 to 30 were flown by private jet to Sacramento on Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. It was the second such flight in four days.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and faith-based groups who have been assisting the migrants scheduled a news conference Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin 온라인 바카라 게임om lashed out at DeSantis as a 바카라 게임 웹사이트small, pathetic man바카라 게임 웹사이트 and suggested the state could pursue kidnapping charges.
DeSantis and other Florida state officials were mum, as they were initially last year when they flew 49 Venezuelan migrants to the upscale Massachusetts enclave of Martha바카라 게임 웹사이트s Vineyard, luring them onto private jets from a shelter in San Antonio.
DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for president, has been a fierce critic of federal immigration policy under President Joe Biden and has heavily publicized Florida바카라 게임 웹사이트s role in past instances in which migrants were transported to Democratic-led states.
He has made the migrant relocation program one of his signature political priorities, using the state legislative process to direct millions of dollars to it and working with multiple contractors to carry out the flights. Vertol Systems Co., which was paid by Florida to fly migrants to Martha바카라 게임 웹사이트s Vineyard, appears to be behind the flights to Sacramento on Monday and last Friday, Bonta said, adding that the migrants were carrying 바카라 게임 웹사이트an official document from the state of Florida바카라 게임 웹사이트 that mentions the company. The company didn바카라 게임 웹사이트t respond to an email seeking comment.
Altogether, more than three dozen migrants arrived in Sacramento on flights last Friday and on Monday. Most are from Colombia and Venezuela. California had not been their intended destination and shelters and aid workers were taken by surprise, authorities said.
Friday바카라 게임 웹사이트s group was dropped off at the Roman Catholic Church diocese바카라 게임 웹사이트s headquarters in Sacramento. U.S. immigration officials had already processed them in Texas and given them court dates for their asylum cases, and none had planned to arrive in California, said Eddie Carmona, campaign director at PICO California, a faith-based group helping the migrants in Sacramento.
Asylum seekers can change the location of their court appearances, but many are reluctant to try and instead prefer sticking with a firm date, at least for their initial appearances. They figure it is a guarantee, even if horribly inconvenient.
The Republican governors of Texas and Arizona have previously sent thousands of migrants on buses to New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., but the rare charter flights by DeSantis mark an escalation in tactics. The two groups sent to Sacramento never went through Florida. Instead, they were approached in El Paso by people with Florida-linked paperwork, sent to New Mexico, then put on private flights to California바카라 게임 웹사이트s capital, California officials and advocates said.
Bonta, who met with some of the migrants who arrived Friday, said they told him they were approached by two women who spoke broken Spanish and promised them jobs. The women traveled with them by land from El Paso to Deming, New Mexico, where two men then accompanied them on the flight to Sacramento. The same men were on the flight Monday, Bonta said.
바카라 게임 웹사이트To see leaders and governments of other states and the state of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, acting with cruelty and inhumanity and moral bankruptcy and being petty and small and hurtful and harmful to those vulnerable asylum seekers is blood-boiling,바카라 게임 웹사이트 Bonta said in a Monday interview.
Some of the migrants who arrived Friday told Bonta they met on their nearly three-month journey to the United States and decided to stick together to keep each other safe as they slept on the streets in several countries, he said.
As the migrants arrived in California Monday, a Texas sheriff바카라 게임 웹사이트s office announced it has recommended criminal charges over the two flights to Martha바카라 게임 웹사이트s Vineyard last year.
Johnny Garcia, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff바카라 게임 웹사이트s Office, said that at this time the office is not naming suspects. It바카라 게임 웹사이트s not clear whether the local district attorney will pursue the charges, which include misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint, according to the sheriff바카라 게임 웹사이트s office.
The office of New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had no specifics as to why the immigrants were taken from Texas to New Mexico before being flown to California.
바카라 게임 웹사이트Gov. Lujan Grisham stresses, yet again, the urgent need for comprehensive, thoughtful federal immigration reform which is rooted in a humanitarian response that keeps border communities in mind,바카라 게임 웹사이트 the governor바카라 게임 웹사이트s spokesperson, Caroline Sweeney, said Monday.
Last year, DeSantis directed Republican lawmakers in Florida to create a program in his office dedicated to migrant relocations. It specified that the state could transport migrants from locations anywhere in the country. The law was designed to get around questions about the legality of transporting people on a flight that originated in Texas.
Florida바카라 게임 웹사이트s alleged role in the arrival of the two groups in Sacramento is sure to escalate the political feud between DeSantis and 온라인 바카라 게임om, who have offered conflicting visions on immigration, abortion and a host of other issues.
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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Fla., Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.