DeSantis' administration breaks silence, defends relocating migrants to California

Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration broke its silence late Tuesday about a new round of migrant flights that have been heavily criticized by California officials, saying the transported individuals voluntarily agreed to be relocated to the state.

"Florida's voluntary relocation is precisely that – voluntary," said Alecia Collins, communications director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management. "Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California."

Though the program is designed to keep undocumented immigrants out of Florida, the asylum seekers never touched foot in the state. Their journey began in El Paso, Texas, where they were approached by state officials. They were bussed to New Mexico and a private plane carried 16 migrants to Sacramento on Friday. The same plane following the same route brought another 20 migrants on Monday.

Collins also shared a video that purports to show the migrants agreeing to go on the trips. Individuals are shown signing paperwork. A woman asks some of the individuals in Spanish if they were "treated poorly" and they say no, according to the video's translation. A man speaking in English says: "Thank you for my room, my life in the streets is very, very heavy."

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The initial flight set off an uproar among California authorities, who blasted DeSantis and threatened legal action, including possible kidnapping charges.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an ABC News interview that the migrants were misled "based on direct conversations that I've had with a number of them who indicated they were promised help finding jobs if they got on the plane and after they got off the plane rather than receiving any help finding jobs... they were dumped and deserted and left."

"They deceived them and misled them and lied to them and that's morally bankrupt, it's cruel, it's inhumane, it's wrong," Bonta added.

Religious and community leaders reinforced that contention that the migrants were deceived during a press conference Tuesday, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“Some of them walked from seven to three months just to get here in search of the American Dream,” Gabby Trejo, executive director of Sacramento ACT, said according to the Bee. “That dream quickly became a nightmare. They were lied to and deceived.”

The latest migrant relocation effort comes on the heels of a high-profile flight to Martha's Vineyard that was orchestrated by the DeSantis administration. That flight deposited 49 migrants in the upscale New England vacation destination, drawing heated debate.

Last month, the Division of Emergency Management selected three companies to execute the migrant relocation effort.

Picked were ARS Global Emergency Management, GardaWorld Federal Services and the company that carried out the Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts: Vertol Systems Company Inc. Bonta said Vertol was the contractor who coordinated Friday's migrant flight to Sacramento.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: DeSantis' Florida administration defends migrant flights to California