Texas Sheriff Says He’ll Launch Criminal Investigation Into Martha Vineyard’s Migrant Stunt

DeSantis has also claimed that Florida lawmakers gave him $12 million to fund the transportation that took migrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard.

As the standoff between red and blue state officials over the transportation of asylum-seekers continues to escalate, one Texas sheriff says he’ll be taking action.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told media yesterday that he’ll be opening a criminal investigation into last week’s incident involving the transportation of approx 50 migrants from a resource center in San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, a small resort island in Massachusetts. Salazar said that his agency believes the migrants were “exploited,” “hoodwinked,” and “lured” on the journey under false pretenses, calling the entire episode “disgusting and a violation of human rights.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly claimed responsibility for flying the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. The incident is part of larger efforts by Republicans to criticize the Biden administration’s immigration policies. In addition to the Martha’s Vineyard incident, Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott also oversaw the busing of Venezuelan migrants to New York and Washington, D.C., last week — a tactic NYC Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, called “a humanitarian crisis created by human hands” on CNN on Sunday.

This morning, reports also emerged that Delaware officials and the White House were working together in anticipation of another plane of migrants landing near the shore town of Rehoboth Beach, where President Biden has a vacation home (Biden even responded to the controversy by sarcastically inviting DeSantis to Delaware, saying “We have a beautiful shoreline”). However, by late afternoon, no such plane had landed in the state.

Since the Martha’s Vineyard incident occurred, a lot of questions have focused on a pamphlet brochure that the migrants were allegedly provided before the flight. The pamphlet was titled “Massachusetts Refugee Benefits” and seemingly promised multiple months of financial assistance, job training, and housing and food assistance for the migrants. Lawyers representing the asylum-seekers have since argued the brochure’s language was “highly misleading” and “used to entice [the migrants] to travel under the guise that support was available to them.” Following the signal from the Bexar Countysheriff's department that it would conduct an investigation, DeSantis has doubled down and defended his actions. He told the press that the affected migrants “all signed consent forms to go” and were provided with maps and other resources for the area.

DeSantis has also claimed that Florida lawmakers gave him $12 million to fund the transportation that took migrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard.