California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he will be investigating the migrant flights to Sacramento authorized by Florida, saying he believes a crime has been committed.
“I know one was on the basis of all the interviews and all the facts that are now in evidence,” Newsom told Jacob Soboroff on NBC’s “Today,” adding, “Now we have to prove it.”
Florida confirmed earlier this week that it sent migrants to California, a flight that Florida claims was “voluntary” for passengers. Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) have questioned whether the flight to Sacramento was legal, suggesting that it could be “state-sanctioned” kidnapping.
Sixteen South American migrants who entered the country through Texas were dropped off outside the Roman Catholic church in Sacramento last week after taking a flight on a private plane. Bonta said he met with the migrants Saturday, adding that there was “no prior arrangement or care in place” for them. He also said the migrants were carrying documentation from Florida.
Newsom said that officials will be looking into who is responsible for flying the migrants out to his state. He also said earlier this week that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was a “small, pathetic man,” suggesting that the Florida governor could face kidnapping charges.
“Now, who’s ultimately accountable and responsible? I mean, the buck should stop with Ron DeSantis and the games he’s playing,” Newsom said in the interview. “But it’s the folks on the front lines that were doing the dirty work. And that’s ultimately what we have to determine, is where the culpability lands and resides.”
A second plane carrying migrants arrived in Florida on Monday, with reports saying that they were also carrying documentation from Florida. Bonta and Bexar County (Texas) Sheriff Javier Salazar each started investigations over the last week related to DeSantis’s flying out dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last year to investigate whether the migrants flew there under false pretenses.
The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment.