DeSantis' office did not respond to a request for comment. Despite widespread condemnation and an ongoing criminal investigation over whether those migrants were misled, the Florida legislature this year allocated $12 million that can be used for such flights. DeSantis organized a similar protest flight in 2022, recruiting migrants in San Antonio to fly to Martha's Vineyard, Mass. In an interview Saturday, he said, “You may not like Biden’s border policies, you may have major criticisms about the asylum system in this country, but how dare you? How dare you treat other human beings this way?”ĭeSantis and his spokespeople have defended the flights, arguing that migrants boarded them voluntarily. Gavin Newsom quickly condemned the flights and said his administration was looking into whether they "violated any criminal laws, including kidnapping.” It was a gambit by DeSantis that brought attention to his recently launched presidential bid, focused on denouncing "wokeness" and attacking California and other states over “sanctuary city” policies.Ĭalifornia Gov. Some choose to sleep outside the El Paso church rather than in its shelter. Migrants stand in the alley outside Sacred Heart Church's shelter Friday.
María and other migrants said the contractors did not identify themselves beyond saying they were there to “help the migrants.” The contractor, along with another woman and two men, spent the afternoon walking around the church trying to recruit migrants like María to board a charter flight to California. Migrant flights and the national attention they've drawn are yet another chapter in the political fight over the border, with California officials vowing to investigate whether travelers were misled and the Florida governor doubling down on hard-line policies and a portrayal of himself as a culture warrior.
María had found herself in the center of a political storm. What María didn’t know was that the woman was a contractor hired by the administration of Florida Gov. “She said I should go, that there were people there to receive us who would give us lodging, that they would help us … get our papers in order,” said María, who asked to be identified only by her first name, out of fear of repercussions from the woman. She slept in the church shelter, then in the alley outside, for three weeks, until a woman approached and said she would fly María on a private plane to California. Like many asylum seekers released on parole by Customs and Border Protection, she had no money to pay for a plane or bus ticket, she said. Once crossing the border, however, she made it only four blocks, to a shelter at Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso. María traveled more than 2,800 miles from Venezuela to reach the United States in early May. It also said Imelda Maynard was with Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico she is director of legal services at Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services Inc. June 12, 2023: An earlier version of this article incorrectly said that migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., in 2022 by the state of Florida had been recruited in Del Río, Texas.
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