Left, mainstream media targets DeSantis for relocating migrants coming to Florida from Texas

State records obtained by The Washington Post claim that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ bid to transport migrants to other states may have gone beyond the extent of the original program designed by the state. 

Florida’s migrant relocation program that was launched in June by Florida’s Department of Transportation specifies that the contractors were allowed to fly out only new arrivals found in the state of Florida, according to public records disclosed on Friday. 

The Post article reports that Florida flew 48 migrants that came into the state from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts last month. Critics are raising questions whether moving migrants coming in from out of Florida are outside the boundaries of the $12 million program, which authorized Florida lawmakers in June to “facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”

DeSantis' position is that the migrants were coming in to Florida, which gives the state jurisdiction, and that the flights intend to send a message to federal authorities and Democrats who are not taking the border crisis seriously. 

“Most of them are intending to come to Florida,” DeSantis said at a conference a few days after the flights. “Our view is you have to deal with it at the source.

The flights, operated by Oregon-based charter airline company Vertol Systems, flew the group of migrants from San Antonio to Crestview, Florida, where they made a brief stop before proceeding to Massachusetts. 

Officials have not explained why the flight stopped in Florida, raising speculation about whether it was made to look like the relocation of migrants had a connection to the states, as the program specifies, added the the Post. 

The records also show that Florida paid Vertol Systems $615,000 for the September flights that headed to Martha’s Vineyard on September 8, and an additional $950,000 for another flight on Sept. 19 carrying migrants to Delaware. 

The new documents come as DeSantis and his administration are being sued by State Senator Jason Pizzo in September for violating state law with the migrant flights. 

Florida's relocation program started in July, when Rebekah Davis, the general counsel for the Florida Department of Transportation issued a request for proposal from various transportation companies.

The state's transportation department looked for vendors who could “implement and manage a program to relocate out of the State of Florida foreign nationals who are not lawfully present in the United States,” according to the request, which was revealed in a recent batch of release records. 

The hired vendor would transport by ground or air “Unauthorized Aliens who are found in Florida and have agreed to be relocated” elsewhere in the United States.