“Superb,” Uthmeier texted. “You will have my full assist. Name anytime.”
“Copy. Thanks,” Keefe responded.
On the day of the primary flight from Texas to Martha’s Winery, Keefe texted Uthmeier: “Wheels up” and “Ought to keep in touch once more round 1100 jap.”
The paperwork present the clearest image but of the extent to which DeSantis’ high officers had been concerned within the planning and execution of the flight. They embody practically 150 pages of fabric resembling textual content messages, pictures of migrants boarding personal planes and partially-redacted Division of Homeland Safety waivers signed by migrants taking the flights. Names of particular person migrants are blacked out of the waiver paperwork however most listing Venezuela because the nation of origin.
DeSantis for practically a yr had championed this system and satisfied the Republican-led Legislature to offer him $12 million of preliminary funding for the general effort to move migrants.
DeSantis’ flight precipitated outrage from Democrats, who accused DeSantis of human trafficking and utilizing weak asylum seekers as political props. Republicans, nonetheless, applauded DeSantis, saying he introduced consideration to the steep enhance in immigration alongside the southern border.
The DeSantis administration is dealing with a number of lawsuits over this system, together with one filed final Monday by The Florida Heart for Authorities Accountability alleging DeSantis was not releasing data associated to the flights. The Treasury Division’s watchdog is looking into whether the Florida governor improperly used cash linked to federal Covid-19 aid funds to pay for the flights whereas a sheriff in Texas is probing whether or not the flights broke any legal guidelines.
DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin stated on Saturday that the discharge of paperwork was not associated to the Florida Heart for Authorities Accountability’s lawsuit, however slightly a part of “ongoing data requests.” He didn’t reply to questions on different elements of the flight, or the data themselves.
Michael Barfield, director of public entry with the Florida Heart for Authorities Accountability, known as the discharge “piecemeal.”
“The Governor’s Workplace continues to play quick and unfastened with the correct of Florida residents to know what their authorities is doing,” he stated in a press release. “These data ought to have been produced inside a day or two of the preliminary request. As an alternative, 25 days later we proceed to get a piecemeal launch of data.”
Textual content messages between Keefe and Uthmeier on Sept. 5 additionally point out that officers in Texas had been conscious of Florida’s program and knew the flights had been coming.
“TX is conscious of Sprint, FYI,” Uthmeier wrote on Sept. 5. “No worries right here.”
“Texas is conscious and good with Sprint?” Keefe responds. “Please affirm.”
“Name when handy,” Uthmeier responded.
It’s unclear who or what “sprint” is and inquiries to DeSantis’ workplace for clarification weren’t returned.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has stated he was not concerned in DeSantis’ flights from his state to Martha’s Winery. However his administration has bused hundreds of migrants from the southern border to blue strongholds, together with New York Metropolis and Chicago. Abbott has additionally bused dozens of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington, D.C. residence. His workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark concerning the Texas messages indicating Texas was “conscious” of some model of the Florida plans.
Whereas DeSantis has solely executed one transport, his administration on Sept., 20 gave the impression to be organizing one other flight of migrants, this time to President Joe Biden’s dwelling state of Delaware, which was first reported by the Miami Herald.
Data on the time confirmed a flight operated by the identical vendor because the Martha’s Winery flights was headed to Nashville, then New Jersey, which set off immigration teams in these cities to hurry to the airport to supply any companies the migrants would possibly want. Flight data on the time confirmed a flight operated by the identical vendor because the Martha’s Winery flights had been headed to Delaware.
That flight, although, was canceled, stranding migrants that had been recruited for the flight stranded in Texas. The Miami Herald reported {that a} lady recognized as “Perla” was the one who confirmed up at a lodge in San Antonio to recruit them for the flights, and finally later abruptly knowledgeable them of its cancellation. The New York Times identified “Perla” as Perla Huerta, a army veteran who spent twenty years within the U.S. Military.
“Perla’’ additionally reveals up in screenshots of What’s App messages that had been despatched to Keefe included in the newest trove of launched paperwork.
“They are going to hate me at this time, however this chance nobody would have given them,” learn one message, written in Spanish, in response to a message that straight referenced “Perla.”
In one other message, a minimum of one migrant appeared to specific gratitude for being a part of this system, saying they really feel like they had been put in a “mattress of gold.”
Keefe was employed by DeSantis in Sept. 2021 to function Florida’s first-ever public security czar, a place DeSantis instantly framed as specializing in unlawful immigration.
Keefe beforehand was a named companion at an Okaloosa County regulation agency that’s among the many greatest within the area and on a number of events represented Vertol Techniques, the seller the DeSantis administration has thus far paid $1.5 million tied to the migrant flight program.
Gary Fineout contributed to this story.