Top aides of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, others added to migrant flight lawsuit

Two top aides to Gov. Ron DeSantis were added as defendants Tuesday in a potential class-action lawsuit stemming from the DeSantis administration flying 49 migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in September.

An amended version of the lawsuit added Chief of Staff James Uthmeier and former north Florida U.S. Attorney and now DeSantis public-safety adviser Larry Keefe as defendants.

Also, it added Vertol Systems Company, Inc., which received a state contract to provide the flights; James Montgomerie, the company’s president; and Perla Huerta, a former Army counterintelligence agent who allegedly led efforts to recruit migrants around San Antonio, Texas.

The lawsuit, whose plaintiffs include the group Alianza Americas and individuals, makes a series of allegations, including violations of constitutional due-process and equal-protection rights. The case was initially filed in September in federal court in Massachusetts and named as defendants DeSantis, Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue and then-unidentified people who recruited migrants.

DeSantis, widely considered a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate, frequently rails against Biden administration immigration policies. The flights took the migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, with a stop in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview.

“If you have folks that are inclined to think Florida is a good place, our message to them is that we are not a sanctuary state,” DeSantis told reporters in September during a media event in Niceville, Okaloosa County. “It’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction, and yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you, to be able to go to greener pastures.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a handful of other Republican governors have been sending migrants to Democratic-led cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., for months, as they sharply criticize President Joe Biden’s immigration and border policies.

DeSantis’ critics said most of the migrants transported to Massachusetts were fleeing the dictatorship of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom DeSantis has repeatedly castigated.

According to NPR, migrants interviewed in Martha’s Vineyard said they had crossed the border in Texas and were staying at a shelter in San Antonio, where they were approached by a woman named “Perla,” now identified as Perla Huerta, with the prospects of flying to Boston for work papers.

“Defendants intentionally and invidiously targeted class plaintiffs because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, and/or status as non-citizens,” the amended lawsuit said.

“They specifically preyed on recent immigrants — and in particular, on recent Latinx immigrants from Venezuela and Peru — because they believed that transporting Latinx immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard would fuel greater political outcry about unauthorized crossings at the Southern border than if white or other non-Latinx immigrants were targeted and because they believed that such immigrants would lack resources and be susceptible to their false offers of jobs, services, and benefits.”

To pay for the flights, the DeSantis administration tapped into part of $12 million that Florida lawmakers earmarked in the state budget to transport undocumented immigrants. 

“All those people in D.C. and New York were beating their chests when (Donald) Trump was president, saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border," DeSantis has said. "The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk. And they're so upset that this is happening. And it just shows their virtue signaling is a fraud."