DeSantis Ordered To Respond To Claims He Unlawfully Relocated Refugees

FLORIDA — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been ordered to respond to the allegations that his Texas-based immigration flights exceeded legislative authority and that he unlawfully exploited his position to create publicity that benefited his re-election campaign.

The decision from Judge Lee Marsh, released on Oct. 14, means that the case, filed by Hector Roos originally before the Florida Supreme Court before being transferred to the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County, will proceed. Roos is representing himself.

Roos is a Libertarian Party candidate for Florida governor.

Roos contends that DeSantis violated the law by using $950,000 in state money, as well as volunteer National Guardsmen and police officers, to relocate 50 Venezuelan refugees to Massachusetts, a so-called sanctuary state, to call attention to the federal immigration policies of the Biden administration.

The $12 million appropriated by the Florida Legislature this year was intended “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this (Florida) state," not from Texas, Roos said.

DeSantis has dismissed this claim as semantics, declaring publicly that he intends to continue the practice of identifying immigrants who are likely to come to Florida and relocating them before they can do so.

“While Ron DeSantis told the public he was doing everything in his power to protect Floridians, instead we find him so focused on running for the presidency that he has failed to confront a truly horrific cost-of-living crisis caused by increased property taxes, the collapse of the property insurance industry and the rising energy costs,” said Roos.

“I am grateful that the court will provide us an opportunity to hold Ron DeSantis accountable and to deliver justice for taxpayers and homeowners harmed by Ron DeSantis’ reckless behavior and incessant brinkmanship," he added.

Meanwhile, the nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the location of a woman they say lured Venezuelan refugees onto planes headed for Martha's Vineyard on behalf of DeSantis.

The League of United Latin American Citizens said it has identified the woman who enticed 50 immigrants onto two planes chartered by the state of Florida to fly from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as Perla H. Huerta. According to CNN, Huerta is a former combat medic and U.S. Army counterintelligence agent, who lives in Tampa.

The Venezuelan immigrants say they crossed the border from Mexico into Texas to seek political asylum from the repressive authoritarian Venezuelan government. Once in the U.S., LULAC said the refugees promptly surrendered themselves to federal immigration officials, who began "federal proceedings to adjudicate their immigration status" as political refugees.

The refugees told their attorneys that, while in San Antonio, they were approached by a woman named Perla who promised them jobs and money if they agreed to fly to Martha's Vineyard.

Domingo Garcia, LULAC national president, originally announced a $5,000 reward to find Huerta and has since doubled it.

“I am announcing that LULAC is doubling the reward for Perla Huerta from the original $5,000 to $10,000 for information that leads to locating, arresting and prosecuting her and any accomplices linked to her illegal actions," he said. "She is a migrant political predator, and the prime suspect wanted in the migrant bounty ring linked to the alleged kidnapping-by-deception of dozens of men, women and children on Sept. 12-14, in San Antonio, Texas, and paid for by Florida taxpayer dollars."

Garcia is also calling for an investigation into DeSantis' strategy of keeping undocumented immigrants out of Florida by recruiting Huerta to lure undocumented immigrants onto buses and planes and then taking them to sanctuary states.

"Americans have the right to know why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used a spy to carry out his sordid and cruel scheme to use human beings as political piñatas," Garcia said

He said Huerta and "her accomplices misused public money for human trafficking and violated immigration laws with false promises and inducements of jobs and housing" to get them to board the planes.

When the immigrants arrived at Martha's Vineyard, however, they were told that they do not qualify for U.S. aid they were promised due to their status as asylum seekers.

"This was nothing more than a shameful stunt," Garcia said. "Now, we need to follow the money. Who paid for Huerta? Who paid to hatch this plot? Who is behind this possible criminal conspiracy?"

LULAC is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate whether DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott violated the law.

"Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are the real shot callers in this disgusting exploitation of innocent human beings," Garcia said. "Gov. DeSantis is using racist, tribal politics in using Venezuelan refugees fleeing a repressive regime, and he is denying these men, women and children basic respect and human dignity."

The advocacy group Alianza Americas and Lawyers for Civil Rights in Boston, who represent the Venezuelan refugees, have filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis. They also maintain that he sent a representative to San Antonio to coerce "vulnerable" undocumented immigrants to board the planes using a "fraudulent and illegal scheme."

"The plaintiffs have led lives inflicted by violence, instability, insecurity and abuse of trust by corrupt government officials that most Americans could hardly conceive of," said Marcos Vilar, executive director of Alianza for Progress, in the lawsuit. "They fled to the United States in a desperate attempt to protect themselves and their families from gang, police and state-sponsored violence and the oppression of political dissent."

Once in San Antonio, Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is representing 30 of the refugees, said the immigrants were handed brochures from the state of Florida with false promises of aid.

Lawyers for Civil Rights Executive Director Iván Espinoza-Madrigal said none of the promises in the brochure are true. The benefits described in the brochure are resettlement benefits available to refugees who have been referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and are authorized to live in the United States.

These benefits are not available to immigrants who are in the process of seeking asylum, a process that can take years.

While DeSantis’ office admitted to printing the brochures, he maintains the state did nothing illegal. His administration shared copies of a consent form signed by the refugees.

Related stories:

• DeSantis Migrant Flights: Investigation Sought Into Public Money Spent
• DeSantis Flies Undocumented Immigrants To Martha's Vineyard
• Martha's Vineyard Migrants Will Shelter At Cape Base: Charlie Baker

“The immigrants were homeless, hungry, and abandoned — and these activists didn’t care about them then," DeSantis said in a statement. "Florida’s program gave them a fresh start in a sanctuary state and these individuals opted to take advantage of chartered flights to Massachusetts. It was disappointing that Martha’s Vineyard called in the Massachusetts National Guard to bus them away from the island within 48 hours."

DeSantis' office said the immigrants signed releases and were given a brochure with a map of the final destination, Martha's Vineyard. Some of the immigrants were provided lodging, showers and meals prior to boarding the planes, according to DeSantis' statement.

“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” said the statement from the governor's office. “If these activists spent even a fraction of this time and effort at the border, perhaps some accountability would be brought to the Biden administration’s reckless border policies that entice illegal immigrants to make dangerous and often lethal journeys through Central America and put their lives in the hands of cartels and Coyotes.”

Coming to DeSantis' defense, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, slammed the advocacy groups for filing a class action lawsuit, saying he's incensed that people who came to the U.S. illegally are now "demanding rights and claims under our laws."

DeSantis said he intends to use the entire $12 million allocated by the Legislature to relocate more immigrants in response to what he calls Biden's lax immigration policies.

“What’s not humane is he’s given a false promise the borders are open, luring people to come here for political purposes and then basically cutting these people loose and leaving them high and dry,” DeSantis said.