SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California attorney general said the state of Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be dropped off outside a church in Sacramento.
“While still under investigation, we can confirm that these individuals were in possession of documents believed to be from the Florida state government,” Bonta said in a statement late Saturday.
The documents indicate the Florida Division of Emergency Management coordinated the flights, Bonta told the Los Angeles Times. Last year, Florida paid contractor Vertol Systems Inc. $1.56 million to transport migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The 16 migrants who arrived in Sacramento on Friday are from Colombia and Venezuela. They entered the United States through Texas. They were flown to New Mexico and then flown by charter plane to the Californian capital, where they were then dropped off outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, California officials said.
They were approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, by people who offered them jobs and travel assistance, said Eddie Carmona of PICO California, a faith group helping migrants. . They did not know they were being taken to Sacramento and arrived with few possessions, he said.
Vertol Systems Co. and the Florida Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to emails Sunday seeking comment.
Bonta said he was assessing whether civil or criminal law violations had occurred.
“As we continue to collect evidence, I want to say it very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a choice of public policy, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said in a statement. .