Did Gavin Newsom, Rob Bonta fail the migrants who were flown to Sacramento from Florida?

Reality Check is a Bee series holding officials and organizations accountable and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email realitycheck@sacbee.com.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta rushed to condemn the Florida officials responsible for transporting 36 Latin American migrants from outside a Texas migrant center to Sacramento under the false promises of housing and jobs.

“(Florida Gov.) Ron DeSantis you small, pathetic man. This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?” Newsom posted on X, formerly Twitter, along with a screenshot of a California penal code section on kidnapping.

“Florida, through this program, is demonstrating the worst of who we can be,” Bonta told The Sacramento Bee last June.

Similar statements generated headlines for weeks, with both men vowing to launch investigations into the June 2023 incidents that brought the migrants to California. Newsom and Bonta even suggested the state could pursue criminal charges against DeSantis and his state-funded relocation program.

However, more than a year later, neither man has followed through on their statements nor done much to help the migrants since then. In fact, little is known about the status of the investigations.

The attorney general’s office said it could not comment on questions regarding the investigations.

The California officials haven’t publicly mentioned the migrants since last summer, except for when the governor used the incident to further criticize DeSantis during their one-on-one TV debate last November. The attorney general, meanwhile, has declined to sign legal documentation to help the group of migrants apply for visas meant for crime victims who are helping law enforcement.

The governor’s office did not respond to questions regarding the investigations or his support of the Sacramento migrants to receive these visas.

Newsom and Bonta’s silence symbolizes the overall response to the Sacramento incident, according to community leaders and volunteers still helping the group. The initial outcry of support from state, county and city governments soon faded, leaving community organizations to shoulder the workload and costs.

“The incident started as a crisis response,” said Gabby Trejo, executive director for Sacramento Area Congregations Together, the faith-based organization that led support of the migrants. “But it quickly de-escalated from a crisis response, even though we were still in a crisis as a community and not solved the pieces of the puzzle.”

‘These individuals have cooperated with the investigation’

The morning after the first group of migrants arrived in early June 2023, the governor, First Partner Siebel Newsom and Bonta met with them at South Sacramento Christian Center.

Over coffee and Panera Bread, the migrants shared stories of their journeys from Venezuela to El Paso, Texas, where they were approached by individuals promising free housing and ample work opportunities. Documents later confirmed travel had been administered by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and a private plane company, Vertol Systems Co.

The episode mirrored previous political tactics used by Republican governors in which they send migrants to Democrat-run cities or states without warning.

In the days that followed, Newsom placed blame on DeSantis and threatened to prosecute him pending an investigation. Legal experts immediately questioned grounds for a criminal kidnapping case.

Bonta went on to file a pair of public records requests — one to the office of DeSantis and one to the Florida Division of Emergency Management — as part of the investigation. He also later posted a letter on X, cosigned by Newsom, sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging for a Department of Justice investigation into the relocation program.

At the time, Bonta said possible charges could include false imprisonment, kidnapping or violations of California’s unfair competition laws.

All the public statements appeared to indicate the migrants were victims of a potential crime, said Marcus Tang, an immigration attorney with the nonprofit lawfirm California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.

With that in mind, the nonprofit organization, on behalf of dozens of legal service providers, faith groups and community-based organizations, signed a letter last year asking Bonta to provide all 36 migrants with a certification that would make them eligible to apply for a U visa.

Such visas are granted to undocumented immigrants who report serious crimes and cooperate with law enforcement. They open eligibility for public benefits, offer protections from deportation and can eventually lead to permanent lawful status in the United States.

These visas often take years to process. The first step requires certification from the law enforcement agency investigating or prosecuting the crime. In this case, Tang said, that meant the attorney general’s office.

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Last summer, Tang said he was “cautiously optimistic” that the migrants would receive the certifications, even though requests are typically dealt with on a case-by-case review.

“We just figured it’d be a more efficient use of resources for the Attorney General to do (as a group), instead of having 30 different attorneys use the normal channels,” Tang said.

The attorney general’s office did not agree, denying the request two weeks after the letter was sent.

In an email response to Tang on June 29, the office said not all 36 migrants were interviewed by law enforcement, and some migrants interviewed did not describe criminal conduct. The office said individual requests were required instead.

“If you’re going to be tweeting about and holding press conferences about this group of people that were so wronged...the least the administration could do is actually confirm for immigration that these individuals have cooperated with the investigation,” Tang said.

The attorney general’s office’s stance on certifications differs from Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar who oversaw a criminal investigation into migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts by the state of Florida.

Less than two months after the September 2022 Martha’s Vineyard incident, Salazar issued the certifications declaring the migrants victims of a crime. Some of those migrants have since received “bona fide determinations” in their U visa petition, a status that provides temporary work permits and protects them from deportation until a visa becomes available. Congress caps the number of available U visas to 10,000 annually.

In Sacramento, volunteers and community organizations are not aware of a single migrant who has received a certification.

In its email statement, the attorney general’s office declined to respond to questions about the Sacramento migrants’ efforts to obtain certifications and said such requests are evaluated on a “case-by-case basis.”

‘We are not asking for preferential treatment’

A new set of lawyers is hoping the attorney general’s office changes its mind, given the similarities to the Martha’s Vineyard incident.

“The migrants here in Sacramento are certainly deserving of victims of crime visas, so we as a community want to help them,” said Kishwer Vikaas, a local immigration attorney.

Vikaas has recently begun volunteering alongside attorney Patrick Gihana to meet with the migrants and again ask Bonta’s office to provide the certifications. This time, the lawyers will specify their request to the migrants who remain in the region. Roughly two-thirds of the original 36 migrants have left Sacramento.

Earlier this month, Gihana and Vikaas held a meeting with some of the group during which they explained the U visa process and asked for patience.

“I can tell by meeting you for the first time here, that it’s been a year and you’re tired,” Vikaas told the group of nine migrants in attendance.

Gihana later asked the group if they understood why they qualified for this visa.

“We were lied to,” immediately answered Jorge Gil Laguna, a 34-year-old Venezuelan.

What happened to this group is not normal, said Gihana. So, he encourages California officials to offer support beyond what they “said on TV.”

“Again, we are not asking for preferential treatment,” Gihana said. “We are really just trying to make sure that the migrants get something out of being victims.”

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