MIAMI — The state agency charged with managing the controversial migrant relocation program said its mission was “to relocate out of the State of Florida foreign nationals who are not lawfully present in the United States,’’ according to documents obtained Friday by the Herald/Times.
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 from Texas 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 mid-term elections.
The documents, obtained through public records requests to FDOT and the governor’s office, show that the discussions began in July with Rebekah Davis, FDOT general counsel, seeking quotes for charter flights.
Neither FDOT nor the governor’s office responded Friday to requests for explanations and comments on the documents.
According to the documents, Vertol CEO James L. Montgomerie provided quotes to transport passengers from Boston and Los Angeles, but his quotes only included up to eight passengers on an eight-seat KingAir 350 Turbo Prop. The governor’s office had bigger plans, and although Vertol was ultimately chosen to handle the flights, flight 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, Fla., 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.’’
Details of agreement with Vertol
The document, labeled “memorandum for record” under the company’s letterhead, states that the company would provide “services to FDOT, on an ongoing, month-to-month basis, in the form of separate relocation projects.”
The Vertol agreement indicates that the first 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 made the first payment on Sept. 8, according to state records, and subsequently paid Vertol another $950,000 on Sept. 19.
A document 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 foreign nationals who are not lawfully present in the United States (“Unauthorized Aliens”).”
The guidelines indicate that the state can spend up to $12 million on the program and that the vendor may pay for Spanish-language services, ground transportation, migrant “meals and lodging en route to destination” and must “ensure Unauthorized Alien reaches designated destination within 72 hours of request.”
State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a South Florida Democrat, has acted as a private citizen and sued the governor, alleging that the program violates state law, in part because the migrants were not being relocated from Florida. The budget language allocating $12 million to establish the program stated that it was to be used for “the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state consistent with federal law.”
The agreement Montgomerie signed indicates that Vertol would 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.”
More records are still being sought
The company also agreed to comply with the state’s public records laws and produce any records as required by contractors providing services to the state. But the company has not responded to repeated requests for comment by the Miami Herald and other entities, and neither FDOT nor the governor’s office has produced the contract or any corresponding communication between the company and state officials.
“FDOT is playing fast and loose with the public’s right to know,’’ said Michael Barfield, director of public access for the non-profit Florida Center for Government Accountability, which first obtained the records on Friday along with the Herald/Times. “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 challenging the program in federal court in Massachusetts. Three anonymous Venezuelan migrants and Alianza Americas, a transnational organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants’ rights, allege that DeSantis, FDOT and others tricked migrants into leaving Texas by offering them McDonald’s gift cards and other items to board the flights, and by promising them assistance and employment. The lawsuit names five other people as defendants, including a man and woman believed by attorneys to have recruited migrants in San Antonio to board the planes.
DeSantis has denied that the people sent to Martha’s Vineyard had been tricked. The private contractor hired by the Florida Department of Transportation to carry out the program told them where they were going, he said.
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(Miami Herald staff writer Nicholas Nehamas contributed to this report.)
