Until now, little has been known about the woman whom migrants said identified herself only by her first name, “Perla,” when she solicited them to join the flights. But details have begun to emerge of the clandestine mission that was carried out without the knowledge of even the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican: flights paid for with state money in possible violation of the state law that allocated the money a charter airline company with political ties to the Florida governor. DeSantis immediately claimed credit for what appeared to be a political maneuver - dumping dozens of asylum seekers on the doorstep of Northeastern Democrats who have resisted calls to clamp down on immigration.įlorida officials have provided little information about the program or how it was engineered.
The flights last month, carrying 48 migrants, attracted international attention and drew condemnation from Democrats as well as several legal challenges. He touted it as the highlight of the state’s new spending when it came to immigration.īut just three months later, the money was being used in a place far from Florida, in a very different way: rounding up Venezuelan asylum seekers on the streets of San Antonio and shipping them on private planes to Massachusetts. Ron DeSantis signed a budget that set aside $12 million to create a program for transporting unauthorized migrants out of Florida.
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