WASHINGTON — The League of United Latin American Citizens has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, calling for investigation into the transit of migrants last month from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, specifically the involvement of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who took credit for the move.
In a news conference in Washington Wednesday, LULAC national president Domingo García of Dallas announced the organization was filing the complaint, and increasing the reward for information about the whereabouts of Perla Huerta to $10,000. Huerta was identified as the woman who allegedly arranged the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, and misled migrants about the flight’s destination.
“It’s time that we bring not only Perla Huerta to justice, but those that hired her and are complicit in this scheme to use human beings in this manner,” García, a former Texas state representative and Dallas City Council member, said.
Huerta served as a counterintelligence agent and combat medic specialist in the U.S. Army until August.
García said Huerta had fled her residence in Tampa, Florida and deleted her Facebook profile. Still, the LULAC was able to pull a photo from her social media and another from a migrant in San Antonio to locate her.
The day after migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had escalated his busing efforts by dropping migrants off outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ Naval Observatory residence in D.C., without notifying local authorities or nonprofits who have been managing migrant arrivals.
García came to the vice president’s residence and said he interviewed migrants there, and later at Martha’s Vineyard. Through these conversations he learned about “Perla.”
“A woman who had lied to them, had told them that they were going to have three months paid work, free housing, free food and free social services if they got on a jet and flew with them to an unknown destination,” García said at the press conference.
The $10,000 reward goes to anyone with information about her location or that could lead to her possible arrest.
García said the allegations against Huerta include misuse of Florida taxpayer funds, human trafficking, violating multiple immigration laws and making false promises leading to possible kidnapping.
“Venezuelan refugees … deserve respect, they deserve dignity and they deserve Christian charity,” García said. “They don’t deserve to be used as political props.”
The DOJ complaint specifically applies to the transit of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and asks the attorney general to investigate Huerta and DeSantis. He said they focused on this incident over the migrant buses sent by Abbott because they believe there was criminal intent.
He said the only cases in which migrants were allegedly lied to about the destination was the flight to Martha’s Vineyard and the bus to the vice president’s residency.
The dozens of migrants who were shipped to Martha’s Vineyard by DeSantis last month are expected to leave Joint Base Cape Cod this week, The Boston Globe reported.
García also had said LULAC members would form human blockades to prevent buses from leaving Eagle Pass for D.C. or other destinations where Democrats lead the local government. However, he said Wednesday that when they arrived in Eagle Pass, they found many migrants were paying to take a commercial bus to San Antonio and voluntarily boarding the buses out of Texas provided by Abbott, negating the need for blockades.
Still, García condemned Abbott’s actions and said dropping off migrants outside the vice president’s residence was “sadistic and cruel.”
On Monday about 50 more migrants, many of them Venezualan refugees, arrived at the vice president’s residence sent by Abbott, the Houston Chronicle reported.
García added he’s asked LULAC councils in Florida to look into whether there was a misuse of taxpayer money or COVID-19 relief funds by DeSantis to pay for the flights.
After the arrival of migrants at Martha’s Vineyard, lawmakers including San Antonio Rep. Joaquin Castro, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, two Massachusetts lawmakers and 44 members of Congress led in part by Houston Rep. Sylvia Garcia called for the DOJ to investigate.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar also launched an investigation into the flights on Sept. 19.
“Here we have 48 people who were already on hard times, and they were here legally in our country at that point ... and I believe they were preyed upon,” said Salazar in a news conference about the probe. “They were just made fools of and were subjected to a video op, a photo op.”
A non-profit immigrant advocacy group, Lawyers for Civil Rights, filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the state of Florida and the state Department of Transportation. The group represents 30 of the nearly 50 migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard.
The suit alleges COVID-19 emergency funds were misappropriated to pay for the flights, and that migrants were defrauded to advance the defendants political motives.
The flights to Martha’s Vineyard were part of an ongoing campaign by Republican governors to transport migrants to Democratic-run cities. Since the spring, Abbott has sent over 12,000 migrants from the border to Washington D.C., New York City and Chicago.
In last week’s governor’s debate between Abbott and Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke, migrant busing was a major talking point. Abbott said the effort will continue.
“(Border communities) needed relief and busing was one of the ways that provided them relief,” Abbott said during the debate.
Recent figures show that Texas has spent over $12 million on buses for migrants to New York and Washington, or about $1,300 per passenger. After receiving criticism for using taxpayer money for the trips, Abbott sought private donations. The fundraiser has accumulated $386,612 as of Sept. 28.
