LOS ANGELES – The California prosecutor, Rob Bonta, requested this Wednesday from the state of Florida the public records related to the transfer by plane from El Paso, Texas, to the Californian capital of 36 immigrants to shed light on the process and the “taking of decisions”.
Bonta has used a Florida law that guarantees public access to that state’s government records to deepen his investigation into the immigrant transfers that occurred on June 2 and 5.
In two letters addressed to the Office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for President in 2024, and to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Bonta requested details of the instructions and communications between those who authorized and carried out the transfer. and migrants, among other records.
“We need to understand the circumstances that led to the implementation of this operation, which was apparently paid for with Florida taxpayer dollars, and the decisions and directives that led to this questionable act,” Bonta said in a statement.
He explained that the information collected “will be crucial” to determine if the law has been violated and, if so, to take measures to “prevent such contempt for human rights from being repeated.”
Florida moved the immigrants under a program DeSantis established last year to send migrants to Democratic-run states following in the footsteps of his Texan counterpart, Republican Greg Abbott.
The transfer of migrants to California operated in the same way that nearly 50 immigrants were sent from Texas last September to Martha’s Vineyard (Massachusetts) and for which the group Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) has sued the Government of DeSantis.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has asked Bonta to investigate the transfer of migrants and establish whether these flights do not violate kidnapping laws.
