California: Migrants Flown via Private Jet, 'Dumped' at Local Church

In what may yet be another stunt that might constitute human trafficking, a group of migrants was sent from Texas to New Mexico before being flown to California via private jet. They were sent to a church in Sacramento, California in the face of the migrant crisis.

On Saturday, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta said that over a dozen migrants were flown to the California capital "with no prior arrangement or care in place." The group had no documentation and was merely "dumped on the doorstep of a local church without any advance warning," said Newsom.

Meanwhile, AG Bonta stated that the investigation is now underway and they are "evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants."

According to CNN, the stunt, which lured migrants staying at a shelter in Texas to travel to be transported to New Mexico before being flown by private jet to Sacramento, may have been by the state government of Florida.

California authorities are still investigating who funded it, though Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has infamously pulled off a political stunt such as this last year. Personnel with ties to his office are said to have lured Venezuelan migrants from a shelter in Texas and flown via private jet to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The Florida governor is now being investigated for human trafficking over his involvement in that incident. He has also vowed to do a stunt like this again.

AG Bonta condemned this act and stated that "State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting."

Migrants Lured From Texas to California with Promises of Jobs

There were sixteen migrants in total who were flown to California. They were all reportedly from either Texas or from Venezuela and entered the US through Texas. When they arrived via private jet, they were sent to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, bringing only a backpack's worth of belongings each.

A faith-based organization called PICO California is helping out these migrants, with its campaign director, Eddie Carmona, telling CBS News that they were processed by US immigration officials and given court dates for their asylum cases already when they were approached by "individuals representing a private contractor" outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas.

Republican governors in Texas and Florida held a busing policy, using taxpayer money to send migrants from Texas to Democratic states and cities to "focus" the attention on the "Biden administration's failed border policies."

However, many nonprofit organizations and human rights groups have pointed out that these acts may be tantamount to fraud and human trafficking.

Ron DeSantis and Human Trafficking of Migrants

Legal experts have stated that the act of busing migrants, such as DeSantis's political stunt in Martha's Vineyard last year, was indeed human trafficking, with Northeastern University's Director and Professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice Amy Farrell stating that the Florida governor and current presidential candidate may have broken the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

"To me there's clearly fraud associated here, and potentially coercion," she said as the victims ticked the boxes on whether or not they were victims of human trafficking as they were promised jobs that were never there. This "fraud" element and the fact that they were transported through state lines fulfill the requirements of human trafficking.

"The [action], here, was that [the migrants] were transported or diverted from where they were originally traveling, and the [means] was that it was done so fraudulently," the law professor told Northeastern Global News.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH:16 migrants processed in Texas 'deceived,' flown on jet to Sacramento - ABC 7