Florida authorities confirmed to AFP on Tuesday that they had arranged for migrants to fly from Texas to California last week and on Monday.

Two groups of migrants made the trip “voluntarily,” the emergency management agency for the southeastern US state said in a statement.

The company tasked with transporting the people entrusted them to Catholic charities, Florida officials said, accompanying the announcement with a video showing smiling immigrants with documents and pens in hand, assuring them they were being treated well.

The Republican nominee for the party’s 2024 presidential nominee, Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis, has been pursuing a policy of moving immigrants to Democratic states for months in protest of Democratic President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

In September 2022, he launched an initiative to airlift 48 immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a resort highly regarded by American high society, in Northeast Massachusetts.

In February, he pushed through legislation that would allow his administration to transfer undocumented immigrants to other states, including people outside of Florida.

The first group of immigrants, citizens of Colombia and Venezuela, arrived on Friday in Sacramento, the capital of California, the second, mostly citizens of Venezuela, landed on the eve of Monday, US media reported.

Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom on Monday threatened to prosecute Mr. DeSandis for the “kidnapping.”

“Ron DeSandis, you pathetic little man. This is not Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges? Mr. Newsom announced this on Twitter, citing an article in the criminal law of his state.

“For the progressive mayors of El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, relocating people who cross the US border illegally is nothing new. But when Florida sends illegal immigrants to a sanctuary city, it is unfairly accused of detaining and kidnapping people, ”the Florida Department of Emergency Management countered.

Source: RES-IPE