By Carmen Sesin and Tim Stelloh -
NBC News
A Texas sheriff said Monday that his office has opened a criminal investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' unprecedented move to send nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, last week.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said the investigation was in its early stages and declined to name possible suspects.
However, in a press conference, Salazar limited: "Everyone in the world in this call already knows what those names are."
Salazar said it was unclear
if any laws had been broken
, but he said 48 migrants appeared to have been "enticed under false pretenses" to stay in a hotel for a couple of days before being flown to Florida and then to Martha's Vineyard.
Venezuelan migrants gather in front of the parish house of San Andrés, in Martha's Vineyard, on September 16.
Boston Globe via Getty Images
"They were promised jobs," Salazar said.
"They were promised the solution to several of their problems."
He added that a recruiter was paid a "fee" to round up about 50 people at a San Antonio immigrant resource center.
The group of asylum seekers, mostly Venezuelans, were brought to the posh island of Massachusetts "for little more than a photo or video, and
unceremoniously dumped
on Martha's Vineyard," according to Salazar.
Salazar said organized crime investigators from his office will handle the investigation.
"We were victims of a hoax": Migrants sent by DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard tell how they were put on the plane
Sept.
16, 202203:02
The announcement came after immigration advocates and attorneys called for a criminal investigation into DeSantis' effort to relocate migrants under a
$12 million
program intended to relocate "
unauthorized
aliens
" in which his administration has described as "sanctuary" jurisdictions.
As of Monday, DeSantis' office had not responded to a request for comment.
[Massachusetts mobilizes the National Guard and shelters migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard in a military base]
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
offered a $5,000 reward
for information leading to the identification of the person who deceived the migrants.
"Wanted" signs have been put up around San Antonio.
"It's one of the cruelest political maneuvers I've ever seen," said Domingo Garcia, president of LULAC.
Biden accuses Abbott and DeSantis of mobilizing migrants as a political strategy
Sept.
16, 202203:44
Garcia said LULAC spoke with several of the asylum seekers, who said a woman named 'Perla' told them they were going to Boston and promised them three months of work and free housing.
Garcia, who spoke to a dozen migrants on Martha's Vineyard last week, said Monday that "Perla" had given them a map with an "X" marking a refugee center, which
was actually an empty parking lot.
Lawyers representing 30 of the 48 immigrants sent to Martha's Vineyard have asked the Massachusetts attorney general and the federal government to open criminal investigations.
[More migrants are sent from Texas to New York and to Vice President Harris' residence in the capital]
The attorneys said their clients "were induced to board planes and cross state lines under false pretenses."
Immigration advocates, as well as Democrats and the Joe Biden administration, say transporting migrants is dehumanizing and accuse Republicans of using people for political stunts, as investigations mount for a criminal investigation.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, said on Twitter that "the Department of Justice needs to investigate Governor DeSantis for using fraud and deception to lure people out of state only to leave them without following through on his false promises. Same thing for Greg Abbott.
They're engaging in human trafficking
."
Migrants from Venezuela, who boarded a bus in Texas, wait to be transported to a local church by volunteers after being dropped off outside the residence of US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, on September 15, 2022.AFP via Getty Images
Since April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has bused migrants released from federal immigration custody to Washington, DC, New York and Chicago.
Abbott also accuses President Joe Biden of being too permissive on immigration.
A month later, Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, also began transporting migrants to Washington, D.C.
DeSantis sent
two planes carrying migrants
to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday.
"They made promises": immigrants were sent to an island in Massachusetts under deception
Sept.
16, 202202:12
The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), a statewide coalition of more than 65 organizations, is investigating whether federal funds were misused when DeSantis sent the migrants to Martha's Vineyard and whether there is scope to a litigation.
Tessa Petit, executive director of FLIC, said they are "
outraged
".
And she added: "We are doing everything possible so that this does not happen again."
[Greg Abbott sent two busloads of immigrants to Kamala Harris' home]
Many of the migrants are asylum seekers who have fled from socialist countries, such as Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, where daily life has become difficult under authoritarian regimes.
