{"id":13301,"date":"2023-06-09T04:32:51","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T09:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=13301"},"modified":"2023-06-09T04:32:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T09:32:56","slug":"florida-says-migrants-flew-to-sacramento-voluntarily-but-california-officials-say-the-asylum-seekers-were-deceived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=13301","title":{"rendered":"Florida says migrants flew to Sacramento voluntarily but California officials say the asylum seekers were deceived"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three dozen migrants who were flown to Sacramento in recent days<\/u><\/a> did so voluntarily, Florida officials said Tuesday, countering accusations from California authorities who said the asylum seekers were misled into taking trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlorida\u2019s voluntary relocation is precisely that \u2013 voluntary,\u201d Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Alecia Collins said in a statement. \u201cThrough verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California. A contractor was present and ensured they made it safely to a 3rd-party (non-government organization). The specific NGO, Catholic Charities, is used and funded by the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement said relocation of migrants \u2013 including by Democratic mayors \u2013 to other cities is nothing new, \u201cbut suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it\u2019s (accused of) false imprisonment and kidnapping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But officials in Sacramento said the 36 migrants flown there and dropped off at the diocese are asylum seekers in the United States legally and were transported to California after they were misled about the trips. Sixteen migrants came on a flight Friday and 20 arrived on a second plane Monday. Most are from Venezuela while a few are from Colombia, Mexico or Nicaragua.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the migrants are young people who are the first in their families to come to the United States, according to Gabby Trejo, the executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT), a non-profit collaboration of local religious congregations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said many walked three to seven months to come to the United States for their dream life, but that turned into a nightmare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were lied to and deceived,\u201d Trejo said at a news conference. \u201cThey can be in this country. They have the paperwork, they\u2019re legally in our country.\u201d She noted the migrants have pending hearings with immigration officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flights came from Texas, but had connections with the Florida government, according to the California attorney general\u2019s office. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, has not commented on the flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That silence included a Tuesday news conference on the state\u2019s new Digital Bill of Rights where DeSantis took no questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His office did issue a statement on Florida\u2019s assistance with border operations in Texas. The announcement said Florida teams \u201chave made contact with more than 5,800 undocumented migrants and assisted the Texas Department of Public Safety with more than 190 arrests,\u201d but there was no mention of migrant flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis has not answered repeated attempts from CNN for comment on the latest flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on Tuesday, the State of Florida released two-and-a-half minutes of edited video of what it claimed is of some of the migrants throughout their transfer to California. The video includes footage of some people signing documents, as well as stills and silent footage of people boarding a chartered plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe video released yesterday by the State of Florida appears to contain only the clips selected by the Florida Department of Emergency Management \u2026 As part of the investigation, we will be formally requesting that the State of Florida provide California with the unedited and full video footage of these asylum seekers. Florida is not required to wait for our formal request,\u201d the spokesperson from California Attorney General Rob Bonta\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg told reporters Tuesday, \u201cTo the people who wonder whether or not we can handle this on top of the real challenges we face in our community: there is no other answer but to say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

California officials looking into criminal charges<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday called DeSantis a \u201csmall, pathetic man\u201d in a tweet and brought up the possibility of kidnapping charges, linking the post to a California law defining the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The California attorney general <\/strong>on Tuesday told CNN his office is looking at the possibility of criminal liability, including kidnapping and false imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe that it\u2019s appropriate to call actions what they are,\u201d he said on CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Lead with Jake Tapper.\u201d \u201cAnd to call out the inhumanity, cruelty, and the political gamesmanship here, which is really falling on the backs of human beings and people here all for cheap political gain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonta said he talked with some of the migrants on Saturday and they didn\u2019t know where they were until someone told them they were in California. The migrants said the people who traveled with them told them they would be right back but had no intention of returning, Bonta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bonta said he has not talked with the attorneys general in Florida or Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want accountability. We want the end to this morally bankrupt pack practice that hurts people, treat them as pawns, weaponizes human beings, and represents the worst of who we can be,\u201d Bonta told CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The migrants who arrived Monday had documents similar to the paperwork other migrants who arrived in Sacramento on a chartered flight on Friday had with them, a spokesperson from Bonta\u2019s office told CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The migrants entered the United States through Juarez, Mexico, the spokesperson said, adding all the migrants have scheduled court dates. As none of those hearings are scheduled in California, local organizations are assisting them in navigation the process, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El Paso mayor says city won\u2019t take part in political stunts<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the El Paso Police Department and the mayor, neither the city nor the department were involved or consulted in the two instances where migrants were transported out of state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Oscar Leeser told CNN the city doesn\u2019t fly asylum seekers out to any location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe would never use individuals in a political stunt, or transport anyone where they didn\u2019t want to go,\u201d the mayor said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, \u201cindividuals representing a private contractor\u201d approached the migrants at a migrant center in El Paso, according to Sacramento Area Congregations Together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 16 migrants were promised help with obtaining jobs, clothing and shelter if they accepted transportation to a different migrant center, according to officials with the non-profit. The group was taken by bus to New Mexico and then flown to California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the reports are correct, we would encourage those that engaged in this practice in our city to cease doing so, and to treat each person as every human being deserves, with dignity and respect,\u201d Leeser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas county may bring charges over Martha\u2019s Vineyard flights<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In September, DeSantis sent\u2002two planes carrying migrants to Martha\u2019s Vineyard<\/u><\/a>, Massachusetts. Migrants have also been bused from border towns to sanctuary cities in recent years with little to no notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javier Salazar, a Democratic Texas sheriff whose office has been investigating the transfer of migrants to Martha\u2019s Vineyard in September said Monday he will file charges \u2013 but didn\u2019t specify against who.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office will recommend charges of unlawful restraint, both misdemeanor and felony, according to a statement from Salazar\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales is reviewing a criminal complaint, a release from his office said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a review of the facts reveal that a felony offense has been committed, we will present that case to a grand jury for their deliberation,\u201d the release said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salazar said the 48 migrants<\/u><\/a> were flown to Martha\u2019s Vineyard for \u201ca photo-op and stranded.\u201d He said he believed the migrants were \u201cexploited and hoodwinked\u201d into making the trip for political posturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis said at the time the migrants weren\u2019t misled. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t they want to go, given where they were? They were in really, really bad shape and they got to be cleaned up, everything, treated well,\u201d he told Fox News<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office of the Treasury Department\u2019s inspector general sent a letter<\/u><\/a> to Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey saying it would examine the Florida flights carrying migrants to Martha\u2019s Vineyard. The October 7 letter said the department would audit the use of state and local fiscal recovery funds, which were dispersed to help with recovery after the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three dozen migrants who were flown to Sacramento in recent days did so voluntarily, Florida officials said Tuesday, countering accusations from California authorities who said the asylum seekers were misled into taking trips. \u201cFlorida\u2019s voluntary relocation is precisely that \u2013 voluntary,\u201d Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Alecia Collins said in a statement. \u201cThrough verbal and written […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2876,8174,1437,1214,7884],"class_list":["post-13301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-criminal-charges","tag-false-claims","tag-florida","tag-immigration","tag-sacramento"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13303,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13301\/revisions\/13303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}