New documents provide more information on Florida’s migrant flights

TALLAHASSEE — Documents obtained from the state company charged with managing the controversial migrant relocation program explicitly say that its mission was “to relocate out of the State of Florida foreign nationals who are not lawfully present in the United States,’’ according to records obtained Friday by the Times/Herald.

That may pose a problem for Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose administration paid a Destin-based aviation company, Vertol Systems Company, more than $1.56 million to transport migrants — including two Sept. 14 flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, even though the 48 Venezuelan passengers never set foot in Florida.

The documents released Friday provide a deeper look into the carefully organized plan by the governor to use the Florida Department of Transportation to relocate migrants to another part of the country, an exercise that has drawn national attention and reignited the polarizing debate over immigration in the run-up to the midterm elections.

Obtained through public records requests to the Department of Transportation and the governor’s office, the documents show that the discussions about the relocation program began in July with Rebekah Davis, Department of Transportation general counsel, seeking quotes for charter flights.

Neither the department nor the governor’s office responded Friday to requests for explanations and comments on the documents.

Vertol CEO James L. Montgomerie provided quotes to transport passengers to Boston and Los Angeles, but his quotes only included up to eight passengers on a King Air 350 Turbo Prop. The governor’s office had bigger plans, and although Vertol was ultimately chosen to handle the flights, records show that Ohio-based Ultimate JetCharters was subcontracted to handle the transport of the migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard.

The planes stopped for less than 30 minutes in Crestview, Florida, where Vertol has its main flight operations. No passengers left the plane while it was in Crestview, and no new passengers boarded.

Another round of flights by Ultimate JetCharters was scheduled a week later, the Miami Herald has learned. Under those plans, migrants were to be transported from Texas to Delaware — the home state of President Joe Biden — but that trip was canceled without explanation, leaving migrants stranded in San Antonio.

According to state finance records, there were at least three projects planned.

Montgomerie agreed his company would “provide to FDOT transportation-related, and humanitarian relocation services to implement a program to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens.’’

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Details of agreement with Vertol

The document, labeled “memorandum for record” beneath the corporate’s letterhead, states that the corporate would provide “services to FDOT, on an ongoing, month-to-month basis, in the form of separate relocation projects.”

The Vertol settlement signifies that the primary one was to “involve the facilitation of the relocation of up to fifty (50) individuals to the State of Massachusetts or other, proximate northeastern state designated by FDOT based upon the extant conditions. The total price for all Services related to Project 1 is $615,000.00, subject to FDOT approval.”

The state agreed to prepay Vertol for the flights, which amounted to about $12,812 per migrant. It made the primary cost on Sept. 8, according to state records, and subsequently paid Vertol $950,000 on Sept. 19.

The documents additionally present the state additionally obtained a quote from one other firm, Palm Beach Gardens-based Gun Girls. The firm is contracted to provide inmate transport and extradition companies for the Florida Department of Corrections. Its quote indicated it might cost $26,000 to move 5 individuals from Florida to Massachusetts, and companies would come with a bilingual officer, a travel-size private hygiene equipment, a boxed lunch and snacks.

In an interview with the Herald, Gun Girls President Susan Kushlin stated her bid did by no means resemble this system put collectively by Vertol, which concerned discovering and recruiting migrants in San Antonio.

Kushlin stated the contract she was bidding for was to move between 5 and 20 “illegal aliens” who had dedicated “non-violent crimes” from Florida to Massachusetts, both utilizing floor transportation or business flights.

She stated her firm didn’t have the assets or experience to tug off an operation like Vertol’s.

“We transport prisoners by contract. That’s all we do,” Kushlin stated. “We don’t do anything like what they did. That’s not our business.”

The documents are prone to increase questions on whether or not Vertol’s operation was according to the Florida Department of Transportation’s express mission, as approved by state regulation. A doc labeled “FDOT Program Guidelines Relocation Program” states as its first guideline:

“The Department of Transportation (”Department”) manages a program to relocate out of the State of Florida international nationals who are usually not lawfully current within the United States (“Unauthorized Aliens”).”

The pointers point out that the state can spend as much as $12 million on this system and that the seller might pay for Spanish-language companies, floor transportation, migrant “meals and lodging en route to destination” and should “ensure Unauthorized Alien reaches designated destination within 72 hours of request.”

Sen. Jason Pizzo’s response

State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a South Florida Democrat, acted as a non-public citizen and sued the governor, alleging that this system violates state regulation, partly as a result of the migrants weren’t being relocated from Florida. The funds language allocating $12 million to ascertain this system said that it was for use for “the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state consistent with federal law.”

Pizzo stated Friday that the documents buttress the claims made in his lawsuit.

“A fifth-grader could understand that they’re plainly violating the law,” he stated, after reviewing the documents obtained by the Times/Herald. “It’s very clear that they are supposed to be relocating ‘unauthorized aliens’ from the state of Florida.”

He famous that the information present 4 Department of Transportation staff signed off on the $615,000 expenditure for the Martha’s Vineyard flights, together with a authorized evaluate.

“This is all about politics,” Pizzo stated. “DeSantis went ahead and made a statement that appeals to his base and they got very, very sloppy on the details.”

More information are nonetheless being sought

The letter Montgomerie signed signifies that Vertol could be paid for “aircraft, crew, maintenance logistics, fuel, coordination and planning, route preparation, route services, landing fees, ground handling and logistics and other Project-related expenses.”

The firm additionally agreed to adjust to the state’s public information legal guidelines and produce any information as required by contractors offering companies to the state. But the corporate has not responded to repeated requests for remark by the Miami Herald and different entities, and neither the Florida Department of Transportation nor the governor’s workplace has produced the contract.

“FDOT is playing fast and loose with the public’s right to know,’’ said Michael Barfield, director of public access for the nonprofit Florida Center for Government Accountability, which first obtained the records on Friday along with the Times/Herald. “This production is incomplete, and the agency has had plenty of time to comply. We will now seek judicial enforcement of the Public Records Act.”

A second lawsuit has been filed difficult this system in federal courtroom in Massachusetts. Three nameless Venezuelan migrants and Alianza Americas, a transnational group that advocates on behalf of immigrants’ rights, allege that DeSantis, the Florida Department of Transportation and others tricked migrants into leaving Texas by providing them McDonald’s present playing cards and different objects to board the flights, and by promising them help and employment. The lawsuit names 5 different individuals as defendants, together with a person and lady believed by attorneys to have recruited migrants in San Antonio to board the planes.

DeSantis has denied that the individuals despatched to Martha’s Vineyard had been tricked. The personal contractor employed by the state to hold out this system informed them the place they have been going, he stated.

Miami Herald employees author Sarah Blaskey contributed to this report.

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