Florida Republicans Approve $10 Million Slush Fund To Fly Asylum Seekers Around The U.S.

Two charter flights from Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas, carried 48 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, last September. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis paid for the flights.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) already faces a lawsuit alleging that the state misled dozens of migrants into boarding private jets for Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, enticing them with false promises of jobs and assistance as part of a political stunt aimed at Democrats. 

So, naturally, Florida Republicans have approved new legislation to give the state even more authority to move asylum seekers around the country with little oversight.

The legislation gives the Florida Division of Emergency Management authority, and $10 million, to transport migrants to anywhere in the country from anywhere in the country, even if they never set foot in Florida. 

The proposed program doesn’t include any parameters on the department’s actions — one sponsor has said the money could be used for “surveillance” and “reconnaissance” — and does away with requirements for competitive bidding, even after the state contracted the company of a major GOP donor and former client of the governor’s public safety czar for the last round of flights. The state paid the firm more than $1.5 million, and has now paid out more than $350,000 in legal fees related to lawsuits over the flights.

Democrats, though powerless to stop it, are not happy. “I know there are members of this committee who do not want to vote in favor of this bill, who do not believe in a $10 million, free check to the governor, with no accountability, no statistics, no data, no back-up, and a political agenda,” state Rep. Kelly Skidmore (D) said during a state House Appropriations Committee Monday, shortly before the panel approved of the bill on party lines.

“I know there are members who don’t want to vote for this bill, and they will, and that is unfortunate and incredibly disappointing,” Skidmore added.

‘Elevate The Conversation To A National Level’

DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard flights, which transported nearly 50 mostly Venezuelan refugees to the New England island, faced three primary criticisms: They were politically motivated, the asylum seekers were misled into participation, and Florida overstepped its legal authority in pursuing the program at all.

The federal class action lawsuit from several migrants flown to the small island alleges a contractor for the state promised “employment, housing, educational opportunities, and other assistance in a large city in the Northeast,” but that instead, when they arrived, they found “that no one on Martha’s Vineyard was expecting them or was even aware that they were coming.” 

The real object of the “political stunt,” the suit alleges, was to “use political fervor over immigration to boost Defendant DeSantis’s national profile.” DeSantis has maintained the flights were voluntary. “The immigrants were homeless, hungry, and abandoned — and these activists didn’t care about them then,” a spokeswoman told The New York Times in September, referring to human rights organizations representing the plaintiffs.

The proposal, now headed to the governor’s desk five months later, doesn’t do much to address concerns about misleading migrants or using them as political pawns — in fact, some proponents admit the flights were designed to make a political point.

Pressed during a hearing on why such legislation was needed, for example, Florida state Rep. John Snyder (R), the bill’s sponsor in that chamber, cited “public safety” — even though migrants commit fewer crimes per person than U.S.-born American citizens — but then acknowledged that he was trying to amplify the debate over the United States border policy. 

“We’re also factoring in trying to address this crisis and continue to elevate the conversation to a national level,” Snyder said. 

Students from the Marthas Vineyard Regional High School AP Spanish class help deliver food to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. Two planes of migrants from Venezuela arrived suddenly Wednesday night on Martha's Vineyard. The students served as translators for the migrants.

Florida and Texas, which has transported many more migrants to so-called “sanctuary cities,” have jacked up the publicity around their flights and bus trips by dropping asylum seekers off at high-profile locations — such as Martha’s Vineyard, where former President Barack Obama owns a home, and the vice presidential residence in Washington, D.C. — without any advance notice, creating chaos on the ground for volunteers. 

So, would Florida Republicans’ new bill require advance notice to localities where people are being shipped? 

“I don’t know that we have to,” state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R), the proposal’s sponsor in that chamber, said during a Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy hearing Tuesday.

Separately, asked if the bill provided any assurance that the migrants participating in taxpayer-funded flights would do so voluntarily, Ingoglia said: “The last thing [contractors and the state of Florida] are going to want to do is be accused of trafficking somebody that did not voluntarily give them permission to do so.” 

But when state Sen. Geraldine Thompson, a Democrat, pointed out that the migrants Florida taxpayers flew to Martha’s Vineyard have alleged they were misled, Ingoglia clammed up, saying he couldn’t comment on the situation. He’d previously cited the ongoing litigation as a reason he would not discuss the Martha’s Vineyard flights. 

The “intent” of the legislation, Ingoglia added, was “to be as open and transparent, and get as much documentation and the voluntary affirmation for the inspected aliens to be transported to another jurisdiction.” 

In an email to HuffPost, Ingoglia said it was “absurd” to refer to the money as a slush fund for trafficking migrants, as somecritics have alleged. “If being voluntarily transported is tantamount to human trafficking, then any commercial pilot who transports people that voluntarily [sic] step onto an airplane is committee [sic] human trafficking — obviously a ridiculous suggestion,” he wrote. 

And yet, Democratic amendments to treat asylum seekers more like regular airline passengers — such as requirements for documentation and transparency — were repeatedly voted down by Republicans. 

A spokesperson for DeSantis told HuffPost in an email Thursday, “As with any piece of legislation, if and when passed by the legislature and delivered to the governor’s office, the governor will review it in its final form and decide on the merits of the bill as presented.”

‘Clear This Up For Me’  

The legal questions over DeSantis’ past flights for asylum seekers abound: He and other state officials currently face multiple lawsuits over their actions, in addition to the class action suit from the migrants themselves, as Florida Phoenix and Palm Beach Daily News catalogedrecently. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center alleges that Florida overstepped constitutional limits with the flights, as immigration enforcement is a matter for federal law enforcement, and that it discriminated against and harassed migrants on the basis of race, color, and national origin. Multiple suits alleging public records law violations by DeSantis’ office, the state’s Department of Transportation, the contractor Florida used for the flights, Vertol Systems Company Inc., have had mixedresults. 

Another suit, filed by Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo as a private citizen, alleges DeSantis violated Florida law last year by transporting migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard with only a brief stop in Florida; state law at the time said that taxpayer money could fund transporting migrants from Florida. 

Pizzo’s lawsuit also alleges that asylum seekers awaiting court dates aren’t “unauthorized,” as Florida law requires. In addition, the Treasury Department in October announced a probe of whether DeSantis had misused interest accrued from COVID-19 funds to pay for the flight. A Texas sheriff said his department would review the situation as well. 

The new proposal in Florida includes a line referring to last year’s migrant flights program: “All payments made pursuant to that section are deemed approved.” 

“The governor realizes our lawsuit’s not going well for him so, ‘Hey, my buddies across the street in the Legislature can go ahead and clear this up for me and make it go away,’” Pizzo told Florida Phoenix. 

There’s also the question of terminology. The new proposal, which would create an “Unauthorized Alien Transport Program” within the Division of Emergency Management (which itself is within the governor’s office), creates a new phrase, “inspected unauthorized alien,” which it defines as migrants who have come into contact with federal law enforcement, been given papers of some kind, and been released into the country “without admitting the individual in accordance with the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.” This would appear to describe asylum seekers, who declare their intent to pursue refugee status when they reach the border — a right that is enshrined in law. “We consider it to be very inclusive,” Snyder said of his bill Wednesday.

Florida Republicans have repeatedly said that these purportedly unauthorized “aliens” should be sent to “sanctuary cities.” But asylum seekers are legally allowed to remain in the country pending any court dates regarding their status or other notices to appear with immigration authorities. “Sanctuary city,” though not a set legal term, typically defines local governments that don’t cooperate with federal law enforcement attempting to arrest migrants.

The cruel irony of using asylum seekers as part of a grand political stunt aimed at amplifying the national immigration debate is that migrants would, in fact, benefit from more help sometimes reachings far-flung destinations, whether family members already living in the United States, legal representation, or court dates. Still, given the circumstances, existing transport programs often feel coercive. 

“I’ve had family members call and say, ‘What is my mother doing in D.C. if she’s supposed to go to Houston?’” Fernie Quiroz, director of the AZ-CA Humanitarian Coalition, told The Arizona Mirror in October, referring to bus trips arranged by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, the third Republican governor to spearhead such efforts.

In Florida, the flight scheme has led to angry accusations of government abuse. 

During a hearing of the state House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Russell L. Meyer, executive director of the Florida Council of Churches, accused Florida lawmakers of attempting to act as a “coyote” for desperate migrants fleeing other places around the world harmed by the consequences of American economic sanctions.

“That’s an inducement. Do you not understand what you’re really doing here?” Meyer bellowed. “Of all the things, in all the years I’ve been coming up here, the one thing I never expected out of this legislature is that it would want to be the coyote of Latin America.” 

State Rep. Thad Altman (R) interrupted the reverend, pointing out a difference between Florida and migrant smugglers: “We do not charge.”

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