Gov. Ron DeSantis Pressured as Calls Grow To Investigate Him Over Misinformation To Fly Migrants to Martha's Vineyard

Gov. Ron DeSantis Faces Pressure as Calls Grow To Investigate Him Over Misinformation To Fly Migrants to Martha's Vineyard — Misinformation provided to a group of migrants flown to Martha's Vineyard has prompted calls for an inquiry into whether Gov. Ron DeSantis purposefully misled the asylum-seekers. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Governor Ron DeSantis is being sued by a Democratic state senator from Florida to stop him from organizing any more flights that will send immigrants to other states.

Democratic senator from Florida Jason Pizzo, who resides in Miami, filed a complaint on Thursday night, alleging that the governor violated the law by using the $12 million set aside in the state budget for migrant transportation.

Lawmakers Sue DeSantis

DeSantis claimed responsibility for chartering two planes to bring 48 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard this week as part of a political stunt to attack President Joe Biden's immigration policies.

The budget specifies that the funds may be used for "the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state consistent with federal law," according to Pizzo, who claims that DeSantis' actions were unlawful. The flights originated in Texas and made a brief stop in the Florida Panhandle before heading to Massachusetts.

The governor said that many people cross the border and remain in Florida. According to Politico, the federal government launched 80 flights transporting migrants into Florida last year. Pizzo was one of several state legislators that voted resoundingly in favor of Florida's budget. A portion of the program's funding came from interest on funds received through Biden's American Rescue Plan and delivered to Florida.

The most recent case, which is 15 pages long, was submitted to state court in Leon County, which is home to Tallahassee, the state's capital. Pizzo, a Florida citizen, brought the action on his own behalf. The complaint demonstrates that the state spent $615,000 through an air charter company called Vertol Systems Company, Inc. on travel and housing in Texas using a screenshot of state budget statistics.

According to NBC News, the business has connections to Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz and Florida's safety coordinator Larry Keefe, who both defended Vertol in a civil complaint in 2017. There is a separate transaction in the case for $950,000 to Vertol Systems, although it is unclear exactly where those cash went.

DeSantis Allegedly Mislead Migrants

DeSantis is facing backlash over the flights, especially after migrants who arrived on the remote island in New England described how they believed they were traveling to Boston and repeated other promises. The organization has since filed a lawsuit against DeSantis, and the House Homeland Security Committee has requested an investigation from the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice.

The panel's letter asked the Justice Department "if any Federal laws were violated in the coercion and transport of the migrants," citing worries that the migrants "were pressured to join the flight using misleading information."

The entire immigration scheme has been compared to the 'Reverse Freedom Rides,' an anti-civil rights counterprotest from the early 1960s that aimed to depict Black Southerners as a socioeconomic burden. Twenty-seven House Democrats, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, called on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to officially condemn the migrant dumps in a letter on Friday, in part due to how similar they are to the Reverse Freedom Rides.

In the lawsuit against DeSantis, it is alleged that he committed fraud, false detention, and deliberate infliction of emotional distress, The Hill reported. Pressley mentioned that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an organization that does not control the first stages of the asylum procedure, instructed the asylum-seekers to register their new addresses after they arrived.

And many Democrats do not accept the DeSantis administration's justification that they were only transferring data from Massachusetts The governor's office, according to Barragán, would have the tools at its disposal to comprehend the ramifications of the orders it was giving the migrants.

Republicans, however, have defended DeSantis, downplaying the significance of the migrant dumping and highlighting the administration of Biden's asylum policy, which they criticize as having "open borders."