Florida paid for migrant flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard

Some Venezuelan migrants have now flown to the small island of Martha’s Winery in Massachusetts, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary are located.

The immigrants were persuaded to cross state pressure under false pretenses, the federal lawsuit alleges.

After VERIFY revealed a narrative and followed the Tiktok video, some viewers confirmed that Florida had invested $12 million in a program to divert out-of-state immigrants and claimed that the flight to Martha’s Winery was indeed from Texas , not Florida. They need VERIFY to check if Florida is paying to transfer immigrants from Texas.

Is Florida Paying Immigrants to Fly from Texas to Martha’s Winery?

Of course, Florida pays immigrants to fly from Texas to Martha’s Winery.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office in San Antonio confirmed that the immigrant from Texas was on a Florida-paid flight before finally arriving at Martha’s.

In June 2022, DeSantis signed the 2022-2023 Liberty Priority Fund for a total of $109.9 billion. This price range provides $12 million for “the entire Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) program to remove unauthorized aliens from the state.”

DeSantis communications director Taryn Fenske confirmed to VERIFY in advance that the two planes that landed at Martha’s Winery were “part of the state’s resettlement program.”

On September 8, the Florida Department of Transportation paid $615,000 in information to the state’s Unauthorized Alien Relocation Program. Fees are paid almost weekly before the plane arrives at Martha’s.

VERIFY sister station WTSP reported on Sept. 21 that Florida had paid Vertol Techniques Firm an additional $950,000, although DeSantis would not verify whether the cash was used for another immigration flight.

In a Sept. 16 news conference, DeSantis confirmed that Venezuelan immigrants “went from Texas to Florida to Martha’s Winery.”

DeSantis mentioned that the state has sent “contractors” to Texas who “identify individuals trying to travel to Florida and then offer them free travel to protected areas in Florida, Massachusetts, and various U.S. states. Transportation”.

Although the immigrants came here from Texas, a spokesman for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed that his workplace is not concerned with funding flights out of the state.

“Our workplace has been in discussions with Governor DeSantis and his team to support our bus technology to provide much-needed help to our overwhelmed and overcrowded border communities,” Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze said in a statement. “While we don’t care about these first planes flying to Martha’s Winery, we appreciate your help in responding to this national disaster and serving Texans.”

The DeSantis workplace did not answer questions about how Florida uses state price-range funds to bring immigrants out of Texas.

Extra from VERIFY: No, Florida doesn’t have a statewide list of banned books, as viral meme claims

An immigration flight in Florida from Texas has sparked an investigation by San Antonio-area supervisory law enforcement officers.

Javier Salazar, Bexar County Sheriff Announced on September 19 He has launched a prison investigation into those who “lure and transported” 48 immigrants to Martha’s Winery from the Immigrant Useful Resource Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Salazar mentioned at a news conference that a Venezuelan immigrant paid to recruit about 50 people from downtown San Antonio.

“Our understanding is that 48 migrants – I’ll use the word lure – were lured into a hut for a few days under false pretences,” Salazar said. “They were picked up on a plane at a certain level, and they were taken to a plane that they had flown to Florida and ended up with Martha’s Winery.”

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Workplace said in an emailed statement that a legal professional representing immigrants contacted the sheriff’s workplace to ask the interim supervision law enforcement agency for an investigation into the immigrant’s flight from San Antonio to Martha’s Winery. Allegation “under false pretenses”.

Salazar mentioned at a news conference that immigrants were offered jobs and “answered some of their questions,” but he did not elaborate.

DeSantis claims the migrants voluntarily boarded flights that Florida paid for.

The sheriff’s workplace advised VERIFY that the plane “taken off from Kelly/Lackland Air Force Base, specifically Atlantic Airways,” according to the report.

The Kelly Regional Addendum is a former air drive facility now part of Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. It is still owned and operated by the U.S. military, although it is not yet envisioned that an air drive base and individuals could fly out of the Kelly area.

VERIFY contacted Air Drive about immigration flights but received no response at the time of publication.

In response to the sheriff’s investigation, Finske again defended the option to transport migrants from Texas to the East Coast.

“After being abandoned, homeless and ‘to their own units,’ immigrants are very keen to leave Bexar County. Florida gives them the opportunity to find greener pastures in protected areas, as we expected That way, it gives them higher resources,” Finske said. “When MA Nationwide Guard didn’t let these people down, they were given housing, meals, clothing, and extra options to succeed after they were unfairly lured to the U.S., compared to 53 immigrants killed in trucks It was found deserted in Bexar County in June this year.”

This story may be up-to-date as VERIFY learns more about the immigrant’s flight to Martha’s Winery.

Extra from VERIFY: Of course, Florida has invested $12 million to move immigrants out of the state