Outrage over Florida Governor Rhonda Santa's decision to fly dozens
of migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts last week is facing
legal challenges. Yesterday, Some of the migrants filed a class action
case against dissenters. Another Florida officials, accusing them
of discrimination and violating the migrants due process rights,
and an investigation is underway in Texas, where the flights originated.
Stephanie Sai has more on that.
Advocates for the migrants say they were tricked into boarding charter
planes that left from San Antonio and eventually arrived in Martha's
Vineyard, Massachusetts last Wednesday. Now, Sheriff Javier Salazar,
a Democrat serving in Bear County, says he has launched an investigation
into possible crimes. His jurisdiction includes San Antonio and the
Sheriff joins me now, Sheriff Salazar. Thank you so much for joining
the news hour. I'm going to jump right in. Why have you decided to
launch a criminal investigation?
What laws do you think may have been broken? We'll just the way we
have the obligation to do whenever criminal allegations comes to
us as we have to investigate it.
Some of them end in criminal charges. Some of them are unfounded.
At this point, it's way too early to tell if this which way this
one will go being that are alleged victims and or witnesses are on
the East coast of the country. So what's at stake right now is we
have to to determine did someone with boots on the ground in Bear
County break the law if they did we have to. We have to take in what
it is that the victims and witnesses are telling us and then make
that determination is
His was a law broken while they were here in our county. Okay, As
you may know, Sheriff, Florida Governor Ron de Santis is now named
in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of these migrants in the
complaint alleges this that he and other officials quote designed
and executed
Premeditated, fraudulent and illegal scheme for the sole purpose
of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.
Sheriff Salazar is that the kind of thing you're looking into and
is Governor De Santis, a suspect?
Well, no. I mean, I think to say that the governor de sentences a
suspect is a is a long stretch. What My concern is and what I have
authority of is my corner of the world, which is bare County. Um
my my concern is did somebody with with feet planted on Bear County
soil, break the law or not at president. We're being told that that's
a distinct possibility by these folks speaking to us through their
attorneys.
But very soon we'll have the opportunity to talk directly to them
find out exactly what they were told and what was done with them
and to them while they were here in Barrow County, and then we make
that determination beyond that, anything that may have occurred with
them in Florida. Anything that may have occurred with them in in
North Vineyard, maybe heartbreaking for us to hear, but I can't necessarily
say that I have purview over or that was illegal here in Burke County.
Our concern is what occurred in this jurisdiction.
Sure, but I have heard you say in a press conference earlier this
week, sheriff that you
have heard the allegation that these migrants were lured. You use
that word that they were lured under false pretenses into a hotel
and then onto a flight. Is there any evidence of that yet? Well,
that's the allegation, right? And right now the allegations are coming
to us through attorneys that represent these folks.
Um, you know, I have preliminarily seen some some written as some
partial written affidavits that would indicate the same thing but
again until we physically hear it from the victims and witnesses
are alleged victims and witnesses themselves right now we have to
go offices secondhand information through an attorney. While I have
no doubt no reason to doubt what these attorneys are telling us for
for our purposes here, we need to hear it directly from the person
affected. Yeah, but I do recall U disk.
Bribing the action of sending them to Martha's Vineyard on this flight
as disgusting. So you've given your opinion on that.
Um, the governors of Texas, Florida, Arizona, They have been bussing
migrants out of their states to cities like Washington, D C. New
York and Chicago for months, and some Republicans have even pointed
out that the Binet administration itself relocates migrants at times.
Why is this flight to you, sir? Massachusetts different
Well, because if you're telling somebody you're going to to point
to this place on the map, and, uh, you know you're going to be treated
this way this way, And this way once you get there, Here's what we're
going to give you once you get there, and it's full disclosure, and
they go with you willingly. That's one thing and whether I agree
with the with the politics behind that, or not, is immaterial.
But when you lie to them to get them to that point on the map, and
then what was promised to them doesn't come to fruition. Once they
get there, that could be problematic. And as I mentioned, it could
quite frankly be criminal. Authorities have stopped more than two
million migrants
at the southern border this fiscal year. Um
It may be political theater. But this whole Martha's Vineyard flight
has drawn attention to what many would say is a broken immigration
system. Is there good that could come out of this, sheriff?
Well, I mean to make a point.
You know you you put together a presentation or a power point or
you, You know, Producer video. You don't use real people to illustrate
a point. You don't use real people. And then And then, as I mentioned,
this is what the allegations are. You don't take real people in a
country that that they're unfamiliar with.
Ah, to a part of the country that they've never heard of, Uh and
and drop them on an island that they know. I know they have no idea
about. Um, that's not what you do to make a point. These are human
beings and whether somebody, uh, agrees or disagrees with the fact
that they have certain rights because of where they happen to be
born on a globe.
Um, is immaterial. They're human beings, And in my opinion, they
shouldn't be treated in such a manner, especially in light of the
fact that the allegations that we're hearing is that they were lied
to to get him there.
Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bear County, Texas. Thank you so much for
joining the news hour. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.