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Florida Judge Orders DeSantis To Hand Over Migrant Flights Records

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


A judge has ordered Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to hand over the flight records involving the nearly 50 migrants that he sent to Martha’s Vineyard.

“Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh rebuffed arguments from the governor’s lawyers that they should be allowed to wait until Dec. 1 to hand over records, including phone and text logs belonging to James Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff who was involved in the operation to fly nearly 50 mostly-Venezuelan migrants to the vacation island,” Politico reported.

“DeSantis said he launched the migrant relocation program — which is being paid from interest earned off billions in Covid-19 relief aid provided to Florida by Congress — as part of an effort to draw attention to the immigration policies of President Joe Biden. But the flights were roundly condemned by Democrats, who called it a “political stunt” and akin to human trafficking. The Treasury Department’s watchdog is currently looking into whether DeSantis improperly used money related to Covid-19 relief dollars,” the report added.

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“Florida Center for Government Accountability filed a lawsuit earlier this month that claimed the failure to hand over records was an unjustified delay. The administration has since turned over some records, including redacted copies of waivers signed by the migrants who flew on the flights as well as information that showed the involvement of top DeSantis aides. The governor’s office pushed back against the lawsuit and said they had been inundated with record requests despite having a small staff. In a response filed last week, the administration also said it would eventually turn over all information no later than Dec. 1,” the outlet added.

The Biden administration announced it launched an investigation into DeSantis on the heels of one of the biggest hurricanes to rock the Sunshine State in recent history.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General said Wednesday that officials will investigate whether the state misspent federal funds when DeSantis flew illegal migrants from Texas to the Democrat-run liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, with former President Barack Obama and his wife own a multi-million dollar mansion.

Republicans, meanwhile, have countered for most of the nearly two years Biden has been in office that his lax immigration enforcement policies have led to a massive spike in drug smuggling that is killing Americans while putting millions of migrants in danger of being abused by cartels.

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DeSantis pushed back hard on Democrat claims regarding a group of illegal migrants he sent to the ritzy liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard last week. Several Dem lawmakers accused the Florida governor of legal violations including “human trafficking,” the latter a charge leveled against him by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who suggested as much in a letter sent last week to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Some have also said DeSantis “falsely lured” or “enticed” the migrants to the island off of Massachusetts, claims he addressed during a news conference on Friday.

“I think that’s totally false,” he said in answer to a question from a reporter. “I think if you look, the folks that are contracted, not only do they give them a release form to sign, they actually give them a packet and in that packet included a map of Martha’s Vineyard. So it was obvious that that’s where they were going, and they gave that to them.

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“And here’s the thing, it’s all voluntary because it’s just the type of thing where we think that’s the right way to do it,” DeSantis added. “I mean, I think that if the states could send, I would send back to Mexico or back to the home country.”

“But here we are doing it voluntarily, they sign a release, and then they get a packet. So they did get a packet that had the map of Martha’s Vineyard. And they’re also treated, you know very well with all this, I mean, they’re treated well with meals and everything,” he continued.

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