Second migrant plane arrives in Sacramento
A group of Hispanic migrants aboard a chartered private plane landed Monday at a small airport in Sacramento, the second such planeload in three days to arrive in the California capital from a New Mexico airport.
The group of about 20 migrants, said to be mostly from Venezuela, landed just before 10:30 a.m. Pacific time and was led to a room at Sacramento Executive Airport to meet with officials from the California Department of Justice. One of the migrants, David Mata, 28, said he arrived in the United States from Venezuela about two weeks ago looking for work. Mr. Mata said he did not know who orchestrated his trip to Sacramento, but said whoever did paid for it in full.
Another group of migrants arrived at another Sacramento airport on Friday aboard the same private jet. California authorities said those migrants were carrying papers proving their trip had been “managed by the Florida Division of Emergency Management” and its contractor, Florida-based Vertol Systems Company. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the group that arrived Monday had similar papers with them, but a California Justice Department official said it appeared the same company — and the state of Florida — was involved.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, who are both Democrats, have said they believed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president, arranged the flight on Friday. So far, Mr. DeSantis has not acknowledged that Florida was responsible, though the details of the incident — including the apparent involvement of Vertol, a private air service and defense contractor — mirror an operation last fall, when the governor sent two planeloads of migrants from San Antonio to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
The migrants who were flown to California on Friday began their journey in El Paso and were taken from there to a municipal airport in New Mexico. After arriving in Sacramento, they were dropped off in front of a meetinghouse.
Over the weekend, Mr. Newsom and other California officials accused Vertol of transporting the group under a false promise of jobs if the migrants agreed to be taken to California. Mr. Bonta said California state detectives would investigate the possibility of criminal or civil charges against anyone involved in flying the migrants over to Sacramento, calling the action “morally bankrupt.”
The migrants who arrived Monday, who said their journey also began in El Paso, were flown from the same airport in New Mexico, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
Representatives for Mr. DeSantis did not respond to requests for comment. Nor does the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which runs the state’s taxpayer-funded program to move migrants from the southern border to other parts of the United States. Mr. DeSantis appeared on a Fox News radio program Monday morning but did not address the migrants who had mysteriously appeared in Sacramento.
If Mr. DeSantis is indeed responsible for the latest flights, they offer a taste of how he can use the power of his office to support his presidential campaign. He will be holding a fundraiser in Sacramento on June 19, part of a tour of California to meet wealthy donors. On the campaign trail, he frequently invokes the migrant flights he sent to “beautiful” Martha’s Vineyard, usually to the cheers of his audience, claiming that under President Biden, the country’s southern border has “collapsed.”
“We have resisted illegal immigration by banning sanctuary cities, cracking down on people smuggling, deploying troops to assist on the southern border and even sending illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard,” said Mr. DeSantis last week at a rally outside of Des Moines.
Monday, Mr. Newsom, who has repeatedly clashed with Mr. DeSantis, on his Florida counterpart on Twitter, suggested the flights could result in “kidnapping charges.”
“This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard,” Mr. Newsom wrote.