‘Small, pathetic man’: California blames Florida’s Ron DeSantis for chartered migrants flight

The private chartered flight that recently flew more than a dozen South American migrants from New Mexico to Sacramento was likely arranged by the state of Florida, according to California officials.

During an interview with ABC News, Attorney General Rob Bonta said the migrants arrived in Sacramento carrying release documents indicating the flight was part of Florida’s newly expanded, multi-million program for relocating migrants.

The California Department of Justice has not publicly released copies of the documents, citing an ongoing investigation. But DOJ spokesperson Tara Gallegos said the paperwork reveals that the program’s contractor is Vertol Systems Co. — the same one behind the flight last year that transported nearly 50 mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management in early May selected three vendors, including Vertol, to provide transportation and carry out Florida Gov. Ron Senatis’ tough-on-illegal immigration political strategy.

DeSantis, a Republican who announced the launch of his 2024 presidential campaign last month, is relaunching the flight program as a way to attack the Biden administration, which he charges with failing to secure the border.

In a tweet on Monday morning, California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a “small, pathetic man.”

“This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard,” Newsom’s tweet read, before pointing to California’s state code around kidnapping.

The code stipulates that anyone who abducts a person “by force or fraud” and brings or sends them to California can be found guilty of kidnapping.

Newsom and Bonta’s comments came hours before a similar flight, carrying an additional 20 adult migrants, landed at Sacramento Executive Airport. The flight initially took off from El Paso and made a stop in Deming, New Mexico before landing in the capital region at about 10:25 a.m. Monday, according to Sacramento County spokesperson Kim Nava.

It was the same chartered plane that was used to ferry the first 16 migrants from New Mexico on Friday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains quiet about migrant flight

DeSantis and his office have been unusually mum on the flights — DeSantis has not confirmed or denied the state’s involvement with the flights. Calls to his office by The Sacramento Bee, and its sister publication, the Miami Herald, have not been returned.

Bonta, however, is already blaming DeSantis and said he was preparing to file charges for the stunt. Those charges could include false imprisonment and kidnapping, as well as violations of California’s unfair competition law, Bonta told ABC News.

“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said in a statement. “We are a nation built by immigrants and we must condemn the cruelty and hateful rhetoric of those, whether they are state leaders or private parties, who refuse to recognize humanity and who turn their backs on extending dignity and care to fellow human beings.”

The flights are part of a larger national debate over how to address — and geographically distribute — the influx of migrants who cross the southern border into the U.S. each year.

As of Monday morning, many questions surrounding the flight remained unanswered, including who would take responsibility for it and what the migrants were told prior to boarding the flight. But groups working to help the new arrivals are saying the migrants were intentionally deceived.

“They were lied to. ... I don’t know who did it or why they did but I do know they were under the impression that they were going to be heading to a location where they were going to get help and work,” said Gabby Trejo, executive director of Sacramento ACT, a collaboration of Sacramento area religious congregations.

Migrants arrive in Sacramento with pending immigrant court dates

The migrants, 14 from Venezuela and 2 from Colombia, were taken from El Paso, Texas, to New Mexico, and then flown by private chartered plane to Sacramento where they were left on the doorstep of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday. The majority of the migrants are aged 18 to 30, said Trejo.

Airport records show the flight from Deming, New Mexico, to McClellan Airport near North Highlands was operated by Barry Aviation, a charter service based in San Marcos, Texas.

A representative for Barry Aviation declined to comment Saturday about the flight’s specifics, or who paid for the flight, but described it as a “government flight.”

The migrants remained in a Sacramento hotel as of Monday, according to PICO California, the statewide faith-based group helping the migrants. Eddie Carmona, campaign director at PICO California, said the group is currently “in the works” of ensuring all the migrants are represented by an attorney.

Lawyers for Civil Rights, a non-profit immigrant advocacy group that represents many of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard, has deployed attorneys to Sacramento to offer legal assistance.

“We want to make sure that they have legal representation and are good to go in terms of resources, food, all that stuff,” Carmona said. “That’s our priority right now.”

Some migrants have immigration court dates in the coming days. None of the court dates are located in Sacramento.

Trejo said the closest court is located in Los Angeles, with some as far as New York and Florida.

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