The office of California state Attorney General Rob Bonta has effectively put Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis’s team under investigation after travel that brought vulnerable migrants to Sacramento, which is the capital of Bonta’s state.
The treks mirrored a past transport that was backed by the DeSantis team and infamously took similarly vulnerable migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, a community in Massachusetts known for the liberal leanings of its residents. Amid those circumstances, reports indicated that local officials had not received significant advance warning of the travel that would leave those people in their communities, which of course further undercut the already hollow promises evidently dangled to those who joined the trips of assistance with basic needs like employment and housing.
In Sacramento, some of the migrants taken to California in travel originating with the DeSantis team were left outside a local arm of the Catholic Church. Past drop-off locations have also included a D.C. residence for the vice president… where migrants were left late last year in dangerously low temperatures below freezing. Republican elected officials like DeSantis are effectively using the real-world plight of these individuals to pursue political gain.
Bonta’s team has sent letters to authorities in Florida that seek various records related to the travel to California under legal provisions in the southeastern state that allow for the public release of certain records. The substance of the categories of records that Bonta’s team is seeking indicates a focus on trying to uncover exactly what was told to both private entities involved in the transports and the actual migrants. “Any instructions or orders given by these offices to any private entity involved in the transports” is one category of the sought records, referring to government offices including DeSantis’s staff.
“Upon meeting with the asylum seekers who had been flown to Sacramento via private plane, without any prior arrangements or immediate care provision, we understood the urgent need for a thorough investigation,” Bonta said last month. “These letters represent our commitment to transparency and justice. We need to understand the circumstances that led to the implementation of this operation – which was apparently paid for by Florida taxpayer dollars – and the decisions and directives that led to this questionable act. The information gathered will be crucial in determining whether the law has been violated and, if so, what subsequent steps are required to prevent such disregard for human rights from recurring.”
