DeSantis’ stunt: Taxpayers had to pay for migrants to be flown to Florida before sending them off to Massachusetts

Adored by fellow MAGA Republicans but vehemently disliked by a combination of liberals, progressives, Democrats and right-wing Never Trump Republicans, far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has become one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. politics. That polarization was evident when the Republican governor arranged for planes of migrants, many of them refugees from Venezuela, to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

DeSantis’ political stunt, many critics have pointed out, was obviously designed to “own the liberals,” as Massachusetts is a deep blue state that President Joe Biden carried by 33 percent in the 2020 presidential election. But right-wing media outlets were quick to defend DeSantis, arguing that if Massachusetts Democrats really cared about the migrants, they should be happy to take them in.

The Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas, in a report published on November 3, stresses that before DeSantis could arrange for the migrants to be flown to Massachusetts, he had to first arrange for them to be flown into Florida.

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“Documents released this week by the aviation company that helped manage Florida’s $12 million migrant relocation program shed new light on behind-the-scenes dealings as the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, working with the politically connected vendor, wriggled around a requirement that Florida use the money to export Florida migrants — not those living in some other state,” Klas reports. “The records obtained by the Florida Center for Government Accountability show, among other revelations, that the president of Destin-based Vertol Systems Company, Inc. was not only on the plane when his company flew migrants out of Texas to Massachusetts on September 14, but he and the governor’s ‘public safety czar,’ Larry Keefe, were intimately involved in the plan to justify using Florida funds for the Texas covert op.”

The migrants, of course, did not arrive in the United States by plane; they arrived at the U.S./Mexico border by land. Then, they were flown from Texas to a stop in Florida, and then north to Massachusetts.

“The flights carrying migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard made a 30-minute pit stop in the Panhandle town of Crestview,” Klas explains. “It was a convenient spot for Keefe, a former U.S. attorney and his former client in private practice, Vertol President James Montgomerie, who would be dropped off in the vicinity of their homes. But it also served another purpose: to allow the Venezuelan and Peruvian migrants picked up in Texas to be treated as if they were Florida-based migrants and thus eligible to be airlifted out under the secretive program.”

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Klas adds, “The fact that Vertol first brought the migrants into Florida — at taxpayer expense — before flying them out is potentially significant because companies involved in importing ‘unauthorized aliens’ into Florida are barred from doing business with the state.”

The Miami Herald reporter notes that DeSantis “has defended the flights, which have been denounced by his detractors as a political stunt to boost his stature in advance of an anticipated run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.”

If former President Donald Trump doesn’t run for president in 2024, DeSantis would, according to polls, have a good shot at winning the Republican nomination. And in some polls, Republican voters prefer DeSantis over Trump as a 2024 presidential candidate.

But in November, DeSantis’ main political priority is Florida’s 2022 gubernatorial race — which isn’t looking good for his Democratic challenger, former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (an ex-Republican). Countless polls released in late October and early November have shown Crist trailing DeSantis by double digits.