DeSantis migrant relocation program planned to transport ‘up to 50’ to Illinois, documents show

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ migrant relocation program deliberate to move “roughly 100 or extra” migrants to Delaware and Illinois between September 19 and October 3, in line with paperwork obtained by CNN via a public information request.

The video featured is from a earlier report.

The paperwork are memos despatched to the Florida Division of Transportation’s state buying administrator from James Montgomerie, the CEO of Vertol Programs Firm Inc., the corporate that Florida contracted to rearrange transport for the migrants.

The memo explicitly states that Vertol Programs would supply the providers to move the migrants, “from Florida.”

Two “tasks” had been deliberate, in line with a September 15 memo. “Venture 2” would transport “as much as fifty” migrants to Delaware; “Venture 3” would transport “as much as fifty” migrants to Illinois.

Each tasks had been scheduled to happen between September 19 and October 3.

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A second memo, dated September 16, mixed the tasks into one and estimated their value as $950,000.

The memo additionally mentioned the migrants might be transported to a “proximate northeastern state designated by FDOT based mostly on extant situations.”

CNN reached out to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response. A spokesperson for Delaware Gov. John Carney mentioned he had no remark.

Vertol Programs was paid $1.6 million by the state of Florida, together with a fee of $950,000.

The flights to Delaware and Illinois by no means occurred. Nonetheless, flight plans had been filed with the FAA that indicated there was a second set of flights deliberate from San Antonio to Delaware.

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A 3rd memo, dated October 8, notes that Vertol prolonged the mission dates to December 1, that means that the flights may nonetheless happen.

On September 14, two planes picked up 48 migrants from San Antonio, Texas, and transported them to Martha’s Winery, Massachusetts. The flights, paid for by the state of Florida, briefly stopped to refuel in Crestview, Florida, and the Carolinas.

DeSantis has tried to sidestep criticism of the flights, saying they had been essential to cease the movement of migrants on the supply earlier than they got here to Florida.

“If you are able to do it on the supply and divert to sanctuary jurisdictions, the prospect they find yourself in Florida is way much less,” DeSantis informed reporters in September.

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