Nantucket On Alert For Next DeSantis Migrant Drop-Off As Documents Suggest He Planned More Flights

Topline

Local officials on Nantucket, Massachusetts, issued an alert Saturday afternoon, warning Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ next destination to send Latin American migrants could be the resort island east of Martha’s Vineyard, following a report in the Boston Globe that DeSantis was actively looking for ways to send more migrants.

Key Facts

DeSantis had sought bids from multiple charter companies to transport Latin American asylum seekers out of the state, telling one contractor he was trying to send “nonviolent criminals” to Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported.

Officials on Nantucket, where President Joe Biden often spends his Thanksgiving holiday, issued an alert on Saturday, after Nantucket Memorial Airport staff received notice that Vertol Systems Inc.—the same company used to send migrants to the Vineyard—has flights to the island scheduled for Tuesday, the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror reported.

It comes three weeks after state and local officials in Delaware, Biden’s home state, started making preparations after hearing one of the private planes DeSantis chartered to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard was scheduled to leave San Antonio, Texas, for Crestview, Florida, on its way to Georgetown, Delaware—although that flight never arrived.

Democratic lawmakers and human rights groups have since slammed DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential hopeful, for conducting a “political stunt” to win political points from his Republican base by trafficking migrants across state lines.

Big Number

$1.565 million. That’s how much the Florida government paid Vertol Systems Company, Inc. to transport migrants on two charter planes from San Antonio to Massachusetts, according to Transparency Florida. The state’s Republican-led legislature has earmarked $12 million for the program, and DeSantis said he would “spend every penny.”

Key Background

Airport officials on Martha’s Vineyard told Forbes they had no warning the two charter planes would arrive on the island last month. In a Fox News interview, DeSantis said the flights were part of a larger initiative to relocate “illegal immigrants” to “sanctuary destinations.” It comes as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) led a GOP program to bus migrants from the Mexican border to Democratic-run cities, including Washington D.C. and New York, where Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency this week after receiving 17,000 asylum seekers, unannounced, since April, according to an emergency order signed Friday. Abbott and city officials in El Paso have pledged to keep sending buses of migrants out of Texas. Both initiatives have been heavily criticized, and DeSantis is now facing several lawsuits. One of them is a class-action suit filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights on behalf of the Venezuelan migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard, which alleges they were coerced into boarding the flights by “fraud and misrepresentation,” thinking they would receive jobs and a better life and didn’t know where they were going. Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo (D) has also challenged the program, filing a lawsuit claiming DeSantis violated state law and requesting a judge prevent the governor from spending additional state funds to fly migrants north. San Antonio Sheriff Javier Salazar launched a criminal investigation last month into potential further violations.

Tangent

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested in a tweet last month the next location should be Rehoboth Beach, the resort town in Delaware. Last year, Cruz drafted the “Stop the Surge” bill that would create 13 new ports of entry to send migrants from the U.S.-Mexico border, including Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Rehoboth Beach, as well as two towns in Rhode Island, three in California, two in New York and one in North Hero, Vermont, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) spends his summers. The bill did not pass.

Further Reading

DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard Stunt Organized With Help Of Ex-Army Counterintelligence Operative, Reports Say (Forbes)

Blonde Mystery Woman ‘Perla’ At Center Of Martha’s Vineyard Migrant Controversy (Forbes)

Town officials alerted to possibility of migrants arriving Tuesday (Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror)