California officials believe that sixteen South American migrants carrying documents from the government of the State of Florida who were left at the steps of a Sacramento Catholic church on Friday are likely pawns of Republican Florida Governor and dwarf angry Ron DeSantis and his quest to secure support from the xenophobic GOP base, Politico reports.
Partnering with his fellow click-bait seeking Republican, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, DeSantis shipped unwitting migrants around the country on false on promises that they would be transported to American cities where relatives or sponsors lived. Instead, they were shipped on planes to places where DeSantis and Abbott expected to “own the libs” by randomly and without notice dropping shipments of migrants in cities unprepared to help them. Using taxpayer money allocated by the GOP-dominated Florida legislature, DeSantis so badly wanted to get cred among right-wing zealots for abusing migrants that he dropped off a planeload he had flown from Texas in Martha’s Vineyard after promising them they would be transported to Boston, more than an hour’s drive away.
In this case, California officials met with the migrants, learning that they came into the US across the southern border into Texas, where they were processed by federal immigration officials. Outside an immigration processing center, a contractor reportedly approached them with promises of free transportation to family but according to California officials, the promises were lies. Instead, they were flown to Sacramento after a stop in New Mexico.
The California officials noted that all of the migrants had Immigration and Naturalization Service paperwork and had been assigned court dates with immigration judges to adjudicate asylum claims. Relocating the migrants, however, means they will have to reschedule their hearings from the Texas immigration court locations to their new locations, something the migrants were apparently unaware of.
“We are investigating the circumstances by which these individuals were brought to California,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “We are also evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants. While this is still under investigation, we can confirm these individuals were in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the state of Florida.”