Texas sheriff calls for charges after DeSantis migrant flights

The sheriff’s office in Bexar County, Texas, has filed a criminal case with the county’s district attorney over a 2022 incident in which 49 migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., the office said.

“The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has officially filed a completed criminal case with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office regarding the incident from September 2022 where 49 migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard,” a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told The Hill.

“The charge filed is Unlawful Restraint and several accounts were filed, both misdemeanor and felony. At this time, the case is being reviewed by the DA’s office,” the spokesperson said.

Last September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) sent dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as part of a migrant relocation effort. Several GOP governors have moved to bus or fly thousands migrants north to liberal cities in protest of immigration at the border and Biden administration policies.

Javier Salazar, the sheriff for the southern Texas county that includes San Antonio, opened an investigation last year into the incident over concerns that the Venezuelan migrants were “lured” under false pretenses onto the flight to Martha’s Vineyard. 

The Bexar County sheriff’s office’s latest move signals the office has wrapped up the investigation into the incident, according to The Miami Herald, which first reported on the recommendations, and prosecutors will now decide whether to follow them. Top DeSantis aides could reportedly be involved in the case.

The development comes as DeSantis runs for the White House in 2024. Also on Monday, California’s attorney general said the state of Florida appears to be behind a group of South American migrants who arrived at a church in Sacramento, Calif., via a private flight.