Florida Watchdog Pushing DeSantis to Release Migrant Flight Records

The Florida Center for Government Accountability filed a lawsuit pushing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' office to release public records about the governor sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

DeSantis on September 14 transported about 50 mostly-Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard—an affluent island off Cape Cod—to call attention to what Republicans see as a lack of border security under President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris' Washington, D.C., residence last month.

Critics blasted DeSantis for using migrants as a political stunt, not alerting local authorities about the migrants' arrival and allegedly lying to them about where they were going. Legal pressure against the Republican governor continues to build, with Monday's lawsuit the latest to be filed against him.

The lawsuit alleges DeSantis' office failed to produce several public records about the state's "relocation program," which was requested in September, and has not asserted any exemption to public records laws that would otherwise require their release.

The Florida Center for Government Accountability, a nonprofit that provides public records assistance to citizens and journalists, first requested public records about the flights on September 20, according to the lawsuit.

The request included the phone and text logs for any devices used by DeSantis' chief of staff James Uthmeier, records sent or received from Abbott about the matter and communications with Vertol Systems Company, the charter airline company hired to manage the flights, the lawsuit claims.

The Center followed up the next day with a second public records request, but records were never produced in either case by September 30, according to the lawsuit.

Michael Barfield, the Center's Director of Public Access, told Newsweek on Monday that he does not believe the governor's office responded in "good faith" to the record's request.

"Not a single record that we actually requested has been produced," he wrote in a statement to Newsweek. "The public's right to know is more important than the Governor's desire to dole out misinformation. The Governor has a constitutional duty to provide information to the citizens of the state of Florida. "

An attorney representing the Executive Office of the Governor informed them they would not be produced by September 30, the lawsuit added.

Now, the Center is turning to the court to demand a hearing on the public records. They are requesting for the court to direct the governor's office to provide an explanation for why the documents cannot be provided and to "find that the Defendants' refusal to produce the records was not justified" and that they violated the state's public records law.

Migrants Also Sued DeSantis

DeSantis has also been hit with another lawsuit filed on behalf of the migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard. The class action lawsuit, filed last month, demanded the migrants receive financial compensation for "economic, emotional and constitutional harms" caused by the scheme.

The suit claimed that the governor's team offered migrants experiencing food insecurity a $10 McDonald's gift certificate to "induce unwitting trust." The migrants were allegedly promised employment and educational opportunities, but DeSantis' team allegedly failed to make these arrangements, according to the lawsuit.

The suit says the migrants suffered harm that "at a minimum exceeds $75,000."

Florida state Senator Jason Pizzo has also sued DeSantis over the program. He said it violated state law because the migrants were from Texas, not Florida, according to the Miami Herald.

Lawsuit Comes 28 Days Before Florida Election

The lawsuit was filed less than a month until the midterm elections, when DeSantis will face Democratic Representative Charlie Crist, who has been critical of the scheme.

Even though DeSantis faced bipartisan rebuke for sending the migrants to liberal areas, he is still widely expected to win reelection. A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy poll surveyed 800 likely voters and found DeSantis leading Crist by 11 percentage points. The poll was conducted from September 26 to 28, after DeSantis sent the migrants to Martha's Vineyard, and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

DeSantis Defends the State's Program

DeSantis and other Republicans have defended the flights amid criticism and have cast blame on Biden, who they say has promoted lax border policies that led to an influx of migrants.

"If you have folks that are inclined to think Florida is a good place, our message to them is, we are not a sanctuary state, and it's better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction," DeSantis said during a September 15 press conference. "And yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures."

A DeSantis spokesperson previously told Newsweek that flying migrants out of Florida is part of the state's "relocation program" that is meant to ban human smugglers and traffickers, as well as "illegal aliens at the southern border" from coming into the state.

Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office for comment.

Update 10/10/2022 2:15 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Michael Barfield.