Texas sheriff opens probe into migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard

By Mica Rosenberg

(Reuters) -A Texas county sheriff is opening a legal investigation into flights that carried dozens of migrants to Martha’s Winery, Massachusetts, from Texas final week, an act that Florida’s Republican governor took credit score for and which the White Home dubbed a political stunt.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar stated at a information convention on Monday that round 50 migrants have been “lured below false pretences” on the streets of San Antonio, put up in a lodge, bused to planes and “stranded unceremoniously in Martha’s Winery,” a rich trip island, “for nothing apart from a photograph op.”

San Antonio is the most important metropolis in Bexar County.

“What infuriates me most about this case is that we now have 48 people who find themselves already on laborious occasions,” Salazar stated. “I imagine they have been preyed upon.”

Salazar, a Democrat, stated his transfer was not associated to his get together affiliation. “It is improper from a human rights perspective. What was achieved to those people was improper.”

A spokesperson for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stated immigrants have been “greater than keen to depart Bexar County after being deserted”.

“Florida gave them a possibility to hunt greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that provided better assets for them, as we anticipated,” DeSantis’ communications director, Taryn Fenske, stated in an emailed assertion.

“POLITICAL PAWNS”

Salazar stated his workplace was working with advocacy organizations and personal attorneys representing the victims and will coordinate with federal authorities as wanted.

DeSantis, who’s up for re-election in November and seen as a doable presidential contender in 2024, claimed credit score for the 2 flights from San Antonio, whereas criticizing Democratic President Joe Biden’s dealing with of a document variety of crossings alongside the U.S.-Mexico border.

DeSantis joins Republican governors from Texas and Arizona in sending migrants to Democratic-controlled cities, together with buses of migrants from Texas dropped off close to the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington.

DeSantis stated final week that Florida paid to fly the migrants to Martha’s Winery as a result of many migrants who arrive in Florida come from Texas.

Republicans have been attempting to shift duty for border crossers to Democratic leaders. The Biden administration stated the Republicans are utilizing migrants as “political pawns.”

Whereas particulars of how the flights have been organized and paid for stay unclear, one migrant informed Reuters he and his household have been recruited exterior of a migrant useful resource middle in San Antonio and promised housing, help for 90 days, assist with work permits and English classes. He stated they have been shocked when their flight landed on an island greatest often known as a summer time retreat populated largely by prosperous, liberal People.

U.S. border brokers made practically 2 million migrant arrests by way of August on the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal 12 months, which started final October, in keeping with authorities knowledge launched Monday. They embrace a rising variety of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and others who can’t be expelled to Mexico below a public well being order in place for the reason that starting of the COVID pandemic. Many search to pursue asylum claims.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York, Jason Buch in Madison and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Further reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Enhancing by Leslie Adler)