California AG requests information from Florida authorities on migrant flights

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) is asking for more information from Florida authorities on migrants flown into the Golden State at Florida’s direction.

“We’re seeking videos, documents, communications between officials, and more to inform our investigation into the transportation of asylum seekers to Sacramento,” Bonta said in a Twitter post. 

Florida earlier this month confirmed it was behind arranging for migrants to be flown into California from Texas, and Bonta promised to investigate potential wrongdoing by Florida officials related to the flights. 

Bonta told The Hill that he’s “glad the state of Florida is accepting blame for what they’ve done.” 

In the new request for more information, the California attorney general said that Florida provided a “highly edited and highly produced” video “a number of days after the flights” but suggested that the Sunshine State has additional footage they’ve not yet shared. 

“We believe they have other footage of the asylum seekers that they have not put in their glossy, highly produced video. And we want those,” Bonta said. “We also want all the documents and communications that talk about what this transportation program is, why the individuals were transported, what they were told, promised, what [was] represented.”

Florida has said the migrants boarded the flight voluntarily, but Bonta has pushed back on the claims. He sent two letters, dated Wednesday, to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Florida’s Division of Emergency Management requesting public records.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has called DeSantis a “small, pathetic man” over the recent flights, which come as a number of Republican governors move to fly or bus migrants to Democrat-led, so-called sanctuary cities in protest of Biden administration policies and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.