“No person should be used as a political pawn in the nation’s highly polarized immigration debate,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Executive Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights. The lawsuit alleges that several dozen immigrants were gathered by a woman to “sign a document to receive a $10 McDonald’s gift card” and that she “did not explain what the document said and was not fully translated into Spanish: an entire paragraph about responsibility and transportation was not translated at all, and the language specifying that the trip would be from Texas to Massachusetts was not translated at all.” One of the plaintiffs in the case, according to court documents, was told by unidentified people “when they first realized that by leaving Texas, he would be provided with permanent housing, stable employment and assistance with the immigration process.” Oscar Chacòn, executive director of Alianza Americas, called DeSantis’ flights to Martha’s Vineyard “morally repugnant.” Alianza Americas is a network of immigrant-led organizations that support immigrants across the US. “That’s why we’ve taken steps to legally challenge what we consider not only a morally reprehensible action, but what we believe is also illegal,” Chacon said in a statement. “We want to do everything we can to prevent more abuses against newly arrived immigrants, especially asylum seekers who deserve support, protection and recognition for their incredible contributions to the US, as well as to their loved ones in their own countries. ” In response to the lawsuit, DeSantis’ office reiterated what it previously said: The transfer of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard “was done on a voluntary basis.” “The immigrants were homeless, hungry and abandoned — and these activists didn’t care at the time. Florida’s program gave them a fresh start in a sanctuary state, and these individuals chose to take advantage of charter flights to Massachusetts,” the statement read. . DeSantis’ office also released a copy of what they say is a “formal consent to transfer” form, which includes a redacted signature of someone purporting to be an immigrant who consented to their flight to Martha’s Vineyard.
The Texas Sheriff will begin an investigation into the Martha’s Vineyard incident
Bexar County, Texas, Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters Monday night that his agency will launch an investigation into the transfer of 48 Venezuelan immigrants from the state to Martha’s Vineyard. Salazar, a Democrat, said Monday he understood a Venezuelan immigrant was paid last Wednesday to recruit 50 immigrants from a resource center in San Antonio, the Bexar County seat. As such, Salazar said he believes laws were broken not only on the county side but also on the federal side. The migrants were taken to Florida and then to Martha’s Vineyard under “false pretenses,” he said. The sheriff said they were taken to Martha’s Vineyard for a “photo shoot and trapped.” He believes the migrants were “exploited and hoodwinked” into making the trip for political posturing. The sheriff has spoken with an attorney representing some of the immigrants for first-hand information about what happened, Salazar told reporters. The allegations he has heard so far are “disgusting and violate human rights,” he said. Salazar said he believes there should be accountability for what happened. DeSantis, who claimed credit for organizing the migrant flight, told Fox News Monday night that the migrants were not misled. “They all signed consent forms to go and then the vendor that does that for Florida gave them a packet that had a map of Martha’s Vineyard, it has the number for different services that are on Martha’s Vineyard,” DeSantis said. “Why wouldn’t they want to go, given where they were? They were in very, very bad shape and they needed to be cleaned up, everything, treated well,” he said. The Florida Department of Transportation paid $1.565 million to Vertol Systems, a Destin-based airline as part of the state’s immigrant relocation program, according to state budget records. A payment of $615,000 was made on Sept. 8 and $950,000 was requested from the state on Sept. 16, budget records show. Budget records do not detail what kind of “contracted services” Vertol provided to the department, nor is it clear whether the two payments were for two flights to Martha’s Vineyard that were flown and operated by Ultimate Jet Charters, a separate private jet company based in Ohio.
Delaware is preparing for possible immigrant arrivals
Reports and flight plans indicated a plane chartered to transport migrants to Martha’s Vineyard was to bring a group of migrants to Delaware, prompting state officials and volunteers to prepare Tuesday. The preparations came after flight tracking sites showed overnight a flight plan filed with a commercial developer and the Federal Aviation Administration involving one of the Ultimate Jet charter planes used on the Martha’s Vineyard flights looked similar to that flight . The locations listed a route from Kelly Field in San Antonio to a short stop in Crestview, Florida and Georgetown, Delaware. Salazar, the sheriff in Texas, said Wednesday that he had been told to wait for another flight on Tuesday, but plans had changed. “We had word this morning that there was going to be a flight that would arrive in San Antonio and depart with a plane of immigrants to Delaware,” he told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Tuesday. “I understand that at the last minute we received word that the flight was delayed.” Salazar said they were not given a reason for the flight delay. Jill Fredel, a spokeswoman for the Delaware Department of Health and Human Services, said at a news conference Tuesday that they have no reports of immigrants arriving at this time. He said the governor’s office has not received any updates from Florida or Texas, but noted the state is preparing just in case. Gov. John Carney’s office also heard the reports, and officials were working to prepare in case immigrants arrived unannounced, according to Gov. Emily David Hersman, a spokeswoman. “We are coordinating with federal officials and are prepared to receive these families in an orderly manner as they pursue their asylum claims,” he said. CNN’s Carolyn Sung, Ray Sanchez, Amy Simonson, Paul P. Murphy, Priscilla Alvarez, Steve Contorno, Manu Raju and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
