Catholic Bishop Slams DeSantis Over Migrant Flights: 'Reprehensible'

TALLAHASSEE, FL — A Catholic bishop in Texas has condemned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' effort to fly migrants to California, calling it "not morally acceptable" and accusing the governor of using migrants to make a political point.

According to an Associated Press report, DeSantis' recruiters set their sights on Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the Texas border city of El Paso in search of asylum-seekers they could take from its bustling migrant shelter to California's capital of Sacramento on taxpayer-funded private jets.

Intentionally or not, envoys infused an element of the governor's own religion into his latest move on immigration, which has drawn sharp criticism from El Paso's Catholic bishop. In an AP interview Wednesday, Bishop Mark Seitz called the move "reprehensible."

• RELATED: 2 States Threaten DeSantis With Criminal Charges Over Migrant Flights

"If you're seeking to help a person who needs to get to a certain destination where they have a sponsor, where they have a job or something like that, that is a commendable act," Seitz said.

He continued, "But if they are being moved simply in order to use them to make a political point, that is reprehensible. It is taking a person who already has lost everything — everything. They have nothing, not even a nation they can really call their own, because they have had to flee that nation. And then using them for your own purposes: That is not morally acceptable."

The bishop's comments came the same week authorities in two states threatened DeSantis with criminal charges after dozens of migrants were flown from Texas to Sacramento this week.

DeSantis has acknowledged that Florida paid to transport 36 mostly Venezuelan migrants to Sacramento on charter flights last Friday and on Monday. The first group was dropped off in front of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Sacramento, also the headquarters of Catholic Charities, apparently without warning. After learning of their arrival, local advocates and officials met the second group at the airport.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at DeSantis on Twitter, calling him a "small, pathetic man" and suggesting his state could pursue kidnapping charges.

"@RonDeSantis, you small, pathetic man," Newsom tweeted. "This isn't Martha's Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?

In the tweet, Newsom referenced a similar incident last September when 49 asylum seekers were flown from Texas to Martha's Vineyard as part of DeSantis' migrant relocation program. The Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Texas has recommended criminal charges against DeSantis concerning the flight.

The governor says the migrants voluntarily made the trip to California — a claim that some migrant advocates challenge. He also said they signed waivers and that California effectively invited them with its welcoming policies.

"I think the border should be closed. I don't think we should have any of this. But if there's a policy to have an open border, then I think the sanctuary jurisdictions should be the ones that have to bear that," DeSantis said Wednesday at an event for law enforcement officials in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Mexican authorities also condemned the governor's policies late Thursday, adding to the jurisdictions potentially threatening legal action against DeSantis, according to a report by The Hill.

"The Government of Mexico emphatically condemns the practice of transporting migrant persons from states bordering Mexico toward other parts of the United States with electoral and political ends," a statement from the Mexican foreign ministry obtained by The Hill read.

The statement continued, "The Secretariat of Foreign Relations reiterates its commitment to guarantee the defense of Mexican persons who live abroad, independently of their migratory status. Legal and diplomatic measures will be explored given this worrying practice."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.