One year after 49 migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, investigations into those believed to have organized what has been called a political stunt have concluded and will move forward in the coming weeks.
Days after the flights in September 2022, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar opened an investigation into whether the people who “lured” migrants onto planes to the Massachusetts island did so “under false pretenses” in San Antonio.
After the investigation concluded, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office filed criminal charges against two female suspects who face 49 counts of unlawful restraint. On May 15, the case was sent to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s office will next present the case to a grand jury, which will evaluate charges and evidence, but the office did not confirm when the case will move forward.
“Those people were in Bexar County legally at that point,” Salazar said of the migrants. Florida Gov. Ron “DeSantis’ administration, I believe, saw that as an opportunity to make a statement with these folks, and they thought they were not going to be held accountable for it.”
Migrants interviewed by the San Antonio Report last year said they took the opportunity because they were desperate to get to their host cities but had no resources to get there and had to sleep on the streets.
Seeking asylum
Some migrants in similar situations stood outside the San Antonio Migrant Resource Center (MRC) on Thursday with either no money to get a plane ticket to their host city or had cash in hand but no debit cards to book the ticket.
Since early September, migrants by the thousands have made unauthorized crossings into the United States at the southwest border and voluntarily surrendered themselves to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The agency releases the migrants within days, with some obtaining permission to remain in the United States legally while they go through the asylum process.
Most migrants at the MRC on Thursday were from Venezuela, Peru and Haiti and had just arrived in San Antonio hours before. They said they had heard from other migrants making the same journey in Mexico that migrants can cross into the United States until Sept. 18.
“[News] spread very strongly that El Paso was open,” said Felipe, a Venezuelan migrant. He left Chile seven months ago and had been working in Monterrey for the past two months, waiting for his CBP One appointment, where he had planned to claim asylum. “When we heard the news, in a rush, we grabbed our bags and got on the train.”
They waited for the CBP One appointment for 20 days, Felipe said, until he and his son had only $30 left and began fearing for their safety.
Many said the same: Desperation comes from months of waiting for their CBP One appointments in Mexico, where they say they had no shelter and ran the risk of being assaulted or kidnapped by smugglers or cartels.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio, which runs the MRC, would not confirm whether the building was at full capacity, but migrants outside on Thursday said there were too many people to be inside the building. Inside the gates of the property, migrants sat on benches and chairs outside. Those with phones were Facetiming and calling loved ones to tell them they made it to the United States.
CBP would not confirm the number of migrants who have crossed since September. The city’s online migrant dashboard on Saturday showed 18,945 migrants have arrived in San Antonio this month, including 739 Friday, the most recent data posted.
At the San Antonio Migrant Resource Center, most migrants are unaware of what documents they were given or under what process they entered the United States. Some have GPS monitoring devices like ankle monitors and cellphones to report to CBP. Most say “turning yourself in” at the border is “by luck,” referring to the fear of being sent back from Mexico to the Guatemalan border. If they’re lucky, they say, they’re let in and given permission to remain in the United States until their court date.
On Thursday, some said their court date after their initial appearance wasn’t until 2026.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week expanded Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans who were in the United States as of July 31. Homeland security officials estimate that roughly 472,000 more people will now be eligible for work permits.
Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. secretary of homeland security, determined the expansion based on Venezuela’s increased instability and lack of safety due to the enduring humanitarian, security, political, and environmental conditions, DHS said in a statement.
New worries
Amid the current influx of migrants into the United States, concern is rising that the situation is ripe for a reprise of the Martha’s Vineyard flights.
“If, for some reason, nothing happens on this case criminally, I think it’s going to happen again and again,” Salazar said. “And again. … No matter how much messaging we get out to them in your community.”
In August 2022, the BCSO sent public service announcements to Central and South America, asking migrants not to come to the United States. Salazar also hosted an immigration town hall meeting in Spanish to warn people not to put their lives in the hands of human smugglers and strangers.
“If there’s no recourse to this and there are no consequences attached to this, then basically, in essence, we’re telling everybody that it’s OK to do this to people,” Salazar said. “My concern is that when the presidential primary kicks off … it will be open season on eminence if we don’t hold somebody accountable. … And human trafficking organizations are just going to say, ‘Let’s just go fishing for humans today.'”
Salazar explained he presented charges only against those who he could confirm were in Bexar County and committed a crime. But in the state of Massachusetts, some migrants filed a civil lawsuit against those suspected of orchestrating the flights, including DeSantis, Florida’s governor; Jared Perdue, secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation; Lawrence Keefe, attorney and Florida’s public safety advisor; James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ chief of staff and former outside counsel to Vertol Systems; James Montgomeri, Vertol Systems president; and Perla Huerta, former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent.
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, told the Martha’s Vineyard Times that he expects the federal court in Boston to have a hearing within a matter of weeks.
The civil lawsuit alleges DeSantis architected and benefited from a plot to inhumanely manipulate the 49 migrants, including four children. The lawsuit claims he did so by targeting recruitment efforts onto Latino migrants in San Antonio to promote his political stage before he announced his run for president.
The lawsuit alleges the plan was set months before it was executed.
According to court documents, DeSantis sent members of his team to Texas in summer 2022 to gather intelligence to send immigrants from Texas to northeast “sanctuary” states. On Sept. 8, 2022, Perdue approved and FDOT prepaid Vertol $615,000 out of Florida’s general revenue fund for a “Relocation Program of Unauthorized Aliens.” Perdue approved, and FDOT paid $950,000 to Vertol on Sept. 19, 2022.
The documents state that Vertol hired Huerta, who lured the migrants, and on Sept. 14, 2022, had them sign a document without explanation in exchange for a $10 McDonald’s gift card. That document waived liability if anything were to happen.
“It’s the responsibility of Congress to act to effectuate changes in the law, that fix our broken immigration system,” said Boston-based immigration attorney Rachel Self, who provided pro bono services to the migrants and still represents five to date. “The fact that the system is so broken creates a vacuum of criminality. It creates a vacuum of criminality in the human trafficking sector.”
One year later
In the days after they landed at Martha’s Vineyard last September, the 49 migrants were transported to Joint Base Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where they went through two days of Zoom interviews with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
Interviews were conducted in Spanish and translated to English, and migrants received counseling services for what they had just experienced.
“A rush to judgment would have been a disservice in this case, especially with the amount of scrutiny, the media lens, the ferocity of the attention that this case got, it does the victims a much better service to do thorough work,” Self said of the case timeline.
A year later, some migrants have settled in the Massachusetts area. Others traveled to their original destinations. Although they qualified to apply for a U Visa, the backlog in applications could delay the process by decades.
While they’re eligible to apply for a work permit while their U Visa application is pending, some are still waiting. Still, some don’t have options other than unauthorized labor jobs in construction and in landscaping. One person received their work permit and Social Security card just days ago, Self said.
“Despite being persecuted repeatedly, they have now put down roots. And they’re enduring because of their own fortitude,” Self said. “What happened to these people was not OK. But they’re all survivors.”
The community that hosted the migrants at Martha’s Vineyard recently invited the group back to the island for a reunion, where 36 of the 49 attended and shared stories of the past year.
“There are people who have worked hard their entire lives and took an incredible risk to come somewhere where they have a chance to make something of themselves without being ground down by gangs or tyrannical governments,” Self said.
