A sheriff’s department in Texas, is recommending criminal charges in connection to its investigation into flights that carried dozens of migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in the fall under the direction of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ administration, according to a statement from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
“The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has officially filed a completed criminal case with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office regarding the incident from September 2022 where 49 migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard,” read a statement shared with Newsweek on Monday. “The charge filed is Unlawful Restraint and several accounts were filed, both misdemeanor and felony.”
According to the sheriff’s office, the case is under review by the Bexar district attorney and will be made available to the public once an update is received. The office did not provide the names of individuals linked to the investigation.
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Under the Texas penal code, unlawful restraint is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison unless the subject is under 17, which is a felony carrying a potential two-year prison term. The crime is a third-degree felony if the victim is exposed to “substantial risk of serious bodily injury,” punishable by up to 10 years.
Newsweek has reached out to DeSantis’ office via email for comment.
News of the completed criminal probe in Texas comes on the same day that the California Department of Justice announced it had launched an investigation into a group of migrants that were dropped off in front of a church in Sacramento, California. According to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, the migrants said they had been taken from Texas to New Mexico, then flown to California.
The asylum seekers also appeared to have documents that had been issued by the state of Florida, leading Newsom and Bonta to believe that DeSantis’ administration could be responsible. Newsom, a Democrat, also tweeted at DeSantis on Monday, threatening the Republican governor with kidnapping charges under California’s penal code.
DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott have participated in relocating migrants to Democratic-led cities by buses and other means of transportation as a protest over President Joe Biden‘s immigration policies. Hundreds of asylum seekers have been received by sanctuary cities, including New York, Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C.
Republican leaders behind the relocation initiatives argue that it is an attempt to get Democrats to take the situation at the southern border more seriously, while critics have argued against politicians using migrants for political games.
DeSantis in particular has received plenty of pushback after funding the flights to Martha’s Vineyard in September. Several migrants said they were pushed to approve boarding the flights under false pretenses, and previously filed a lawsuit against the Florida governor for “economic, emotional and constitutional harms.” The Florida Center for Government Accountability also filed a lawsuit in October 2022, pushing DeSantis’ office to release public records pertaining to the relocation scheme.
