Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, a Democrat, stated he was “heartened” by the investigation, including that “whoever is behind this should reply.”
The episode is no less than the second time in latest months that migrants have been transported to Sacramento from Texas. In September, a smaller group of Venezuelans who had crossed the border in Laredo, certain for New York, Florida and Utah, confirmed up exterior a Catholic Charities constructing in California’s capital metropolis.
That they had paperwork directing them to the native places of work of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however officers had been unable to find out who had despatched them. A number of had walked the ten miles from the Sacramento Worldwide Airport, some with out sneakers.
Knowledge from FlightAware, an internet site that tracks flights throughout the nation, reveals one direct flight between Deming Municipal Airport in Luna County, N.M., and Sacramento McClellan Airport that landed on Friday simply earlier than 11 a.m. after roughly three hours. A consultant for Berry Aviation, a constitution service based mostly in San Marcos, Texas, informed The Sacramento Bee that the flight was “one thing that the federal government ran,” however didn’t remark additional.
Vertol, the corporate that was stated to have introduced the migrants to Sacramento, is an aviation agency and protection contractor based mostly in Destin, Fla. It has ties to Republican leaders in Florida, in addition to to one in every of Mr. DeSantis’s high aides, Larry Keefe, a former U.S. lawyer who beforehand represented the agency in lawsuits after which spearheaded the state’s migrant flight program. (The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.)