Group seeks to resurrect lawsuit against DeSantis over migrant flights

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The group that sued Gov. Ron DeSantis over flights sending undocumented migrants from the southern border to Martha's Vineyard wants another shot at the Republican’s administration in federal court.

An attorney representing the migrants on Thursday asked a Massachusetts court to once again take up the case alleging that the Republican governor, as well as current and former top aides, misled some 50 migrants as a publicity stunt. Seeking to revive the legal challenge that was scaled back by a judge in April, the group made several tweaks attempting to more clearly tie the DeSantis administration to the controversial operation.

The class-action lawsuit filed against DeSantis by Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston — on behalf of some of those on the flight — as well as Alianza Americas, claims that migrants picked up in Texas were lied to about where they were going and told they would have housing and jobs once they reached their destination.

DeSantis in 2022 pushed to get $12 million from the state Legislature for his migrant relocation program and records showed that several top aides were deeply involved in the planning of the Martha’s Vineyard flights. The governor pursued the program as a means to criticize the immigration policies of President Joe Biden, attracting enormous publicity when the migrants, most of them from Venezuela, were flown to a Democratic-run state.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs dismissed DeSantis and other state defendants from the suit in April, determining there were “insufficient facts” presented in the lawsuit to tie them to any potentially illegal actions that occurred in Massachusetts. But the judge also allowed several claims against Vertol, the company that was paid $1.5 million to operate the flights, to proceed and determined some evidence supported allegations that the migrants were targeted because they were Hispanic.

Attempting to strengthen the lawsuit, the group this week added more correspondence allegedly showing DeSantis officials carrying out the flights. As one example, the lawsuit argues the evidence shows that Florida Public Safety Czar Lawrence Keefe, and James Uthmeier, the governor’s chief of staff, “spoke by phone at least four times in the ten days before the flights,” including two calls with the flight vendor.

Officials with the DeSantis administration did not respond to a request for comment Friday surrounding the lawsuit. State offices were closed for the day. DeSantis officials have maintained that the flights "were conducted lawfully and authorized by the Florida Legislature" and that they "look forward to Florida’s next illegal immigrant relocation flight" to bring attention to the "crisis at the southern border.”

The updated lawsuit also details correspondence between Perla Huerta, the alleged recruiter for the DeSantis administration, and migrants she allegedly steered toward taking the flight to Massachusetts. The messages show an unnamed migrant realizing that no one in Martha's Vineyard was aware they were coming.

“This[,] what you did[,] you don’t do,” the migrant messaged Huerta, according to court documents. “Here they don’t know what to do with us, they don’t know where to house us. ... We don’t know where we were sent. ... We are here without knowing what to do.”

Huerta, in response, told the migrant that Massachusetts “has to be responsible for you.”

“I am very sorry about the chaos when you arrived but believe me there are those who will take care of you very well and help you,” Huerta said, according to court documents. “Even if they send you to other cities within Massachusetts, the state has a lot of resources.”

Florida orchestrated a second wave of flights in June 2023 , when it arranged to fly migrants to Sacramento, but has not undertaken any operations since then. DeSantis floated flying Haitian migrants to Martha’s Vineyard earlier this year, though has yet to make such a move.

Gary Fineout contributed to this report.