Politico reported that Massachusetts Democratic lawmakers have composed a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging him to launch a federal investigation into Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for relocating migrants from his state to Martha’s Vineyard.
The lawmakers have asked Buttigieg to find out whether DeSantis violated the department’s rules by allegedly misleading migrants in order to get them to board the planes to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts earlier this month.
The Democrats’ push to investigate DeSantis comes as the Florida governor is dealing with the massive damage caused by Hurricane Ian to his state this week.
Multiple outlets and liberal media figures have accused DeSantis of duping the migrants, the majority of which are originally from Venezuala, into boarding the planes, with some of them arguing the governor should be charged with “kidnapping.”
As Politico reported, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and five other members of the all-Democratic Massachusetts delegation provided the outlet exclusive access to their letter.
The letter, written by Markey and signed by the other delegates, “invoked a charter-broker rule issued during the Trump administration that prohibits charter operators from ‘misrepresenting’ information like the ‘time of departure or arrival, points served, route to be flown, stops to be made, or total trip-time.’”
While trying to persuade Buttigieg to go after the Florida governor, Sen. Markey invoked a federal class action lawsuit filed against DeSantis by a civil rights group on behalf of the migrants last week. That lawsuit accused DeSantis and Florida officials of convincing migrants to board the planes with “false promises and misrepresentations” of what they would receive at the end of their journey.
Politico’s report stated, “Court documents describe how the primarily Venezuelan migrants were approached near shelters in San Antonio, Texas, by a woman named ‘Perla’ and offered $10 McDonalds gift cards and ‘false promises and false representations’ of employment, housing and educational opportunities in either Boston or Washington, D.C.”
The lawsuit alleged that only once the migrants had boarded the planes and begun their journey, “they were informed they were instead headed to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where local officials were unaware of and unprepared for their arrival.”
The report noted that other Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried have “called on the Justice Department to investigate DeSantis.”
However, Politico acknowledged, “DeSantis has denied that the migrants were misled. Taryn Fenske, communications director for DeSantis, said in a statement last week that the migrants ‘were homeless, hungry, and abandoned.’”
Buttigieg has yet to comment on the Massachusetts Democrats’ letter though he has weighed in on DeSantis’ migrant move. The outlet noted, “Buttigieg called the migrant transports ‘stunts’ during an appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival earlier this week, but has said little else on the matter.”
