Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and officials from California and Texas want the Department of Justice to investigate Florida.
Newsom was joined by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Bexar County, Texas, Sheriff Javier Salazar in a Thursday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for an investigation into the transportation of immigrants to Massachusetts and California over the last nine months. The three allege that the state of Florida “deceived migrants into taking flights to these particular locations based on promises of jobs and shelter.”
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“It is unconscionable to use people as political props by persuading them to travel to another state based on false or deceptive representations,” the letter read. “We urge USDOJ to investigate potential violations of federal law by those involved in this scheme.”
Bonta has filed public record requests to Florida seeking all communications between the governor’s office, the Florida Department of Transportation, the Division of Emergency Management, Berry Aviation, and the third-party contractor Vertol Systems Company in an apparent attempt to determine “whether the law has been violated.”
The three called on Garland because “the U.S. Department of Justice has a unique capability to investigate cases where, as here, the scheme stretches from Massachusetts to California and touches upon no fewer than five states.”
A spokesperson from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) office previously clarified to the Washington Examiner that written or verbal consent was accepted before the immigrants boarded planes. His office did not return requests for comment following news of this letter.
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Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is not mentioned in the letter despite his efforts in transporting over 23,000 immigrants to Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. His efforts included sending more than 100 people to Los Angeles — 42 of whom arrived last week. Abbott described the strategy as a “historic action” in order to “relieve overrun border towns.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis has transported about 100 immigrants total to Massachusetts, which received roughly 50 mostly Venezuelan immigrants, and California.
