Bexar County sheriff launches investigation into Florida flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

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Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar has launched a criminal investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flying 48 migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Winery final week. The choice comes on the heels of immigration rights teams and Democrats accusing Republicans of exploiting susceptible migrants for political factors by promising them jobs and housing, solely to fly them to an island off the coast of Massachusetts that was not warned individuals needing assist had been coming.

Salazar, sheriff for the county the place San Antonio is positioned, mentioned it’s too early within the investigation to call suspects or know what legal guidelines had been damaged. However he mentioned he’s speaking to an lawyer representing a few of the migrants and making an attempt to determine what expenses ought to be made and towards whom.

“We need to know what was promised to them. What, if something, did they signal? Did they perceive the doc that was put in entrance of them in the event that they signed one thing? Or was this strictly a predatory measure?” Salazar mentioned.

Final week, DeSantis mentioned the planes had been a part of his state’s $12 million program to relocate migrants to a “sanctuary vacation spot.” Migrants mentioned a lady going by the title of Perla approached them outdoors San Antonio’s Migrant Useful resource Middle and promised them jobs and shelter. Some mentioned they had been informed they had been going to Boston. However they arrived in Martha’s Winery, the place native officers had been caught off guard. Migrants are at the moment being housed at Joint Base Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s workplace mentioned it was not accountable for the planes, however he has employed an identical technique, busing migrants to cities run by Democrats to alleviate overwhelmed border communities. The strikes are supposed to name consideration to the Biden administration’s immigration insurance policies. Abbott has spent not less than $12 million busing migrants to New York Metropolis, Chicago and Washington, D.C. Final week, he despatched buses to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence.

Immigrants’ rights teams and Democrats have likened these actions to human trafficking by treating migrants like “human cargo” to attain political factors.

At a Monday press convention, Salazar blasted the flights from his Texas county to Massachusetts, calling them “an abuse of human rights.”

“What infuriates me most about this case is that right here we have now 48 individuals which can be already on onerous occasions, they’re right here legally in our nation. At that time, they’ve each proper to be the place they’re and I imagine they had been preyed upon,” Salazar mentioned. “Any individual got here from out of state, preyed upon these individuals, lured them with guarantees of a greater life.”

Salazar additionally mentioned he’s working with personal attorneys who’re representing the migrants flown to Massachusetts, in addition to advocacy organizations, concerning this incident.

“I imagine there may be some prison exercise concerned right here, however at current, we are attempting to maintain an open thoughts and we’re going to examine to search out out and to find out what legal guidelines had been damaged if that does become the case,” Salazar mentioned.

DeSantis’ workplace didn’t instantly reply for remark.

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