DeSantis tight-lipped on migrant flights as experts ponder potential legal peril

Slammed as "cruel" and "pathetic" by California authorities who accuse him of sending migrants by private plane from New Mexico to Sacramento, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to avoid commenting on the flights during an appearance in The Villages Tuesday.

The silence on the migrant issue has been noticeable for a political leader who is campaigning for president as an immigration hawk. The migrant flights are creating growing legal jeopardy for DeSantis, though, with charges recommended from a flight last year to Martha's Vineyard and California authorities threatening more.

DeSantis appeared in The Villages retirement community in Central Florida for a bill signing Tuesday and didn't mention the migrant flights. He didn't take questions at the press conference.

The governor hasn't said anything about the new flights since the first one became public over the weekend. His press office hasn't responded to multiple requests for comment. Meanwhile, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom have railed against DeSantis.

Bonta said in an interview with an ABC News station in Sacramento that a migrant flight there on Friday was part of a Florida program approved by DeSantis.

"This is Gov. DeSantis' state of Florida, this is his cruel, inhumane political stunt," Bonta added. "Manipulating human beings, people, for whatever cheap political points he wants to get in his run for presidency."

Newsom said DeSantis is a "small, pathetic man" and raised the possibility that the Friday flight could result in kidnapping charges.

A plane carrying 16 migrants traveled from New Mexico to Sacramento Friday, and the same plane made the same journey with 20 migrants on Monday, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The new migrant flights come as DeSantis is facing intensifying legal scrutiny over a previous flight that delivered 49 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

Back story: Texas sheriff investigating how migrants were 'lured' on flights DeSantis arranged

On Monday a Texas sheriff in Bexar County, where the migrants were approached for the Martha's Vineyard flight, recommended several charges of unlawful restraint. The charges include both felonies and misdemeanors, according to the sheriff's office. The case was forwarded to the local district attorney to decide whether to prosecute.

It's not clear which individual or entity could face charges. A spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff said "at this time we are not naming the suspects involved in the case."

The new flights could bring more legal complications, and Bonta said DeSantis himself could face charges.

“The people that could be potentially implicated are those who were part of this official act and carried it out,” Bonta said in an interview with the ABC News station in Sacramento. “So the state of Florida, Gov. DeSantis, the employees who work for Vertol Systems, the private vendor that’s hired by the state of Florida.”

Bonta said the migrants on Friday's flight had documents indicating their flight was part of Florida's program, which the Legislature expanded with millions in additional funding. The documents indicate that Vertol Systems, which also conducted the Martha's Vineyard flight, was the contract for the flight to Sacramento, a California Department of Justice spokesperson told the Sacramento Bee.

Bonta is exploring potential felony and misdemeanor violations.

Attorney Erin B. Corcoran, an immigration law expert and professor at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, said DeSantis’ migrant flights raise significant legal issues.

Corcoran said moving immigrants between jurisdictions is “squarely a federal issue, not a state issue.” DeSantis is testing that premise, so it’s not surprising that he could face legal challenges, particularly on the constitutionality of his move.

A constitutional challenge could take years to be decided, though.

“To get a case heard before the Supreme Court is one in a million,” Corcoran said. “It’s not easy. If you actually care about the integrity of your state border and what other states can do and you care about the people involved, you would not go to the Supreme Court; you would use your own (state) legal system.”

Going through state courts could result in a much faster decision.

Yet trying to prosecute a state or governor on criminal charges would be highly unusual and politically explosive.

“With a state or a governor it’s somewhat novel,” Corcoran said of the charges being explored.

Attorney Denise Gilman, a professor who directs the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School, said it's "possible that individuals directly involved in coercive transfers of migrants may be subjected to criminal prosecutions or civil lawsuits" but finding the state of Florida liable is "less likely... although not impossible."

Both Gilman and Corcoran said charges could hinge on whether authorities can prove that the migrants didn't relocate voluntarily, which could come down to whether they were given false information.

"Where there is not full voluntariness, then there are serious legal issues," Gilman said. "First, the migrants will have been deprived of their liberty on false pretenses, which means that they have been kidnapped."

Having DeSantis or other Florida officials charged with kidnapping in the state of California would be a dramatic move.

It could be a political bombshell, although not necessarily a setback for DeSantis in the primary.

Trump’s legal issues seem to have strengthened him with GOP voters.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis quiet after Gavin Newsom slams migrant flights