Texas Sheriff Recommends Criminal Charges For Ron DeSantis Migrant Flight Kidnappings

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The Miami Herald reports, Texas sheriff recommends criminal charges in DeSantis’ migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard:

A Texas sheriff’s department has recommended that the district attorney in Bexar County bring criminal charges over the first iteration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called migrant relocation program. Those flights last September sent 49 asylum seekers, most of them Venezuelans, from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

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According to a statement provided to the Miami Herald, the Bexar County sheriff completed its criminal investigation into the on-the-ground operation that that allegedly lured migrants onto the flights with false promises of jobs and opportunities on the other end.

“The case filed includes both felony and misdemeanor charges of Unlawful Restraint,” according to the statement. “At this time, the case is being reviewed by the DA’s office. Once an update is available, it will be provided to the public.”

Now it’s up to prosecutors in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, to decide whether to follow the sheriff’s recommendation. The district attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Last fall, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar issued special certifications to all of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard declaring them to be official victims of a crime and paving the way for them to stay in the United States under a special visa for those helpful to law enforcement. Unlawful restraint is a misdemeanor unless the victim is younger than 17 — as was the case for five of the migrants.

Handing the case over to prosecutors is a critical juncture in a criminal probe that could snare some of DeSantis’ top aides. The migrant relocation program, using Florida tax dollars, was overseen by DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, and public safety czar Larry Keefe.

The sheriff announced its charging recommendation in a statement to the Herald Monday as news broke of several dozen migrants transported from El Paso to Sacramento, California, using a playbook similar to the one DeSantis used to send asylum seekers to Massachusetts last year.

Although DeSantis’ has not yet confirmed the state of Florida was behind the latest flights to California, the migrants arrived outside a Sacramento-area church carrying documents that indicated the travel was arranged by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Vertol Systems, the private contractor that also arranged the original flights to Martha’s Vineyard, the office of California’s attorney general said.

“We are investigating the circumstances by which these individuals were brought to California. We are also evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement issued by his office.

DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rachel Self, attorney for the migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard, called for DeSantis and his aides to be prosecuted in response to the news of the latest flights to Sacramento.

“The fact that no charges have yet been filed has clearly left the Florida authorities with the impression that they can keep acting this way with impunity,” said Self. “The people who perpetrated this need to know: no matter who you are, you aren’t above the law. A lesson needs to be taught.”

The sheriff in El Paso County has not opened an investigation into the recent flights to Sacramento, according to a statement provided to the Herald.

The Miami Herald editorializes, DeSantis doesn’t have to own up to latest migrant flights. The buzz is political gold:

The governor of Florida hasn’t taken credit, but the two flights that landed in Sacramento, California, with Texas migrants aboard have all the hallmarks of a DeSantis & Co. production.

When he pulled a similar stunt last fall, flying migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Gov. DeSantis bragged about it, as if it was just the cutest thing.

It wasn’t. Choosing to not see the humanity of the people he was duping to score a political point — another disturbing hallmark of his administration — he got proxies on the ground in the Lone Star State to lure almost 50 migrants with promises of jobs and aid. After a brief touchdown in Florida, however, they were flown to the blue and progressive Vineyard. There, they were greeted by people who, though totally unaware the migrants were coming, actually treated them like human beings.

‘KIDNAPPING’

Monday, while California authorities continued to investigate — Attorney General Rob Bonta called it “state-sanctioned kidnapping” — Sheriff Javier Salazar, of Bexar County, Texas, wrapped up his own investigation into the September flights with a recommendation that criminal charges be filed against those who were part of the ground operation in his state.

DeSantis, so far, has been mum about the flights to Sacramento.

This time around, there were some differences, but the act still was undergirded by the same mean-spirited intentions.

This time, the stunt would be amply funded. The Florida Legislature handed over $10 million in a February special session to expand this relocation program to fly migrants from any state to another. The flights to the Vineyard cost us $612,000.

This time, the migrant landing may have been DeSantis’ poke in the eye to California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Both have a juvenile “did-not-did-too!” relationship from which they benefit at the expense of those of us hungering for some well-reasoned policy discourse.

And maybe DeSantis doesn’t have to say anything. This time, according to a spokesperson from the California attorney general’s office, 16 migrants deplaned on Friday with documents that indicated they arrived through a program run by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and its contractor, Vertol Systems Company. Vertol has the state contract to operate the program. Monday, another 20 migrants landed.

ATTACK FROM RIGHT

There’s another difference here: This time, DeSantis is officially seeking the Republican nomination for president — and needs to out-Trump former President Donald Trump with an even more-extreme stance against undocumented migrants.

In addition to the migrant flights, this year DeSantis signed legislation that makes it pretty much illegal to exist as an undocumented migrant in Florida, threatening anyone with arrest, including, of course, family members, who do so much as gives them ride.

Note: This law is remarkably similar to one advanced by Russell Pearce in the Arizona legislature nearly 20 years ago. Much of that law was struck down by the courts.

Florida is not the only state to ship out migrants. Texas and others [Arizona, under former Gov. Ducey] have bused them to sanctuary states, including New York. It’s their way of saying, “Not our responsibility.” Of course, that’s been the same stance as an irresponsible Congress has taken for far too long. For decades, it has shirked its role in bring fairness and sanity to federal immigration policy, tamping out good-faith efforts from some lawmakers to make progress on the issue.

The Editorial Board made these same argument in September after the first migrant flight. We say now of these leaders, as we said then: “They should be ashamed of themselves, but they won’t be.

“They lost the capacity for that a long time ago.”





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