A Massachusetts district attorney said Friday that his office is investigating Florida's decision last year to send flights filled with migrants to Martha's Vineyard.
Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert Galibois also threw his support behind a group of public officials from California and Texas calling for a federal investigation into the flights.
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"I am conscious of my obligation to investigate any potentially criminal activity that occurs within my jurisdiction," Galibois said in a statement. "[I] am aware that immigrants were tricked and fooled into boarding planes that ultimately landed in Martha's Vineyard, a part of my jurisdiction. I believe this falls within my purview as District Attorney to investigate. Given that much of the information that I seek to review as part of my investigation falls outside of my jurisdiction, I stand behind California and believe in order for a full and proper investigation to occur, the Department of Justice must be involved. I stand ready to cooperate with the Department of Justice."
Two planes filled with undocumented immigrants landed on Martha's Vineyard last September, leaving the island scrambling to prepare emergency shelters to help them.
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The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said it was responsible for the flights, with a spokesperson saying that night they were "part of the state's relocation program to transport [undocumented immigrants] to sanctuary destinations."
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has touted the flights to Martha's Vineyard in his campaign speeches, falsely claiming island officials "deported them the next day." In reality, they were brought to an emergency shelter on Joint Base Cape Cod before alternative housing was arranged.
Galibois' announcement comes a day before DeSantis will be on Cape Cod for a fundraiser.
In a class action lawsuit, migrants said unidentified people working with DeSantis had been "trolling streets outside of a migrant shelter in Texas and other similar locales, pretending to be good Samaritans offering humanitarian assistance."
The migrants said those people made false promises that if they were willing to board airplanes to other states, they would receive employment, housing, educational opportunities and other assistance.
They also said they were told they would be flown to Boston or Washington, D.C., but were dropped off on Martha's Vineyard without food, water or shelter.
DeSantis' move was widely panned by Massachusetts lawmakers as a "cruel stunt."
"History does not look kindly on leaders who treat human beings like cargo, loading them up and sending them a thousand miles away without telling them their destination," Rep. Bill Keating, D-Massachusetts, said in a tweet.
Earlier this summer, Florida also sent flights filled with migrants to Sacramento. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta both likened the action to kidnapping.
In a letter earlier this month, Newsom and Bonta joined Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, to call on the U.S. Department of Justice "to investigate potential violations of federal law by those involved in this scheme."
Salazar's office announced last month that it had recommended criminal charges, including misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint. No suspects were named. The sheriff had previously opened an investigation into the flights after saying the migrants were "lured." Charlie Baker, Massachusetts' governor at the time, said he was supporting that investigation.
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