Perla Huerta: The woman who sent migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard is a former military officer and former counterintelligence agent

The plot that led fifty migrants to board two planes in Texas bound for the island of Martha's Vineyard, in Massachusetts, begins to be clarified with new details revealed by a man who assures that he was in charge of recruiting them without knowing, he adds, that the flights were financed by the governor of Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis.

In addition, The New York Times newspaper provided more information about the key person in this plot.

A woman he calls Perla (a name mentioned by other migrants), and for whom a reward is being offered, found him living on the streets of San Antonio, he told CNN, and offered him help in exchange for collecting to migrant families.

To convince them, they promised to expedite their work permits, and gave them

. 

"I never, ever knew that [who organized the transfer of migrants] was a governor or a politician," said the man, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity citing security concerns.

"My only will has always been to help people," he added.

To back up his story, he provided Perla's business card and exchanged audio and text messages.

The New York identifies the woman behind this operation as

citing a source close to the investigation by the San Antonio Sheriff's Office.

She is a former military doctor and counterintelligence agent who was discharged in September after two decades in the Army and several missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

DeSantis, who is campaigning for re-election in November, rented two planes to send a group of 48 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, as part of his strategy to express his rejection of the immigration policy of the President Joe Biden.

Lawyers from the organization Alianza Americas have filed a class action lawsuit against DeSantis alleging that he moved the migrants with false promises of housing, work and help.

The sheriff of the Texas county of Bexar, which includes San Antonio, has also indicated that he will open an investigation to see if any law was violated.

And California asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation.

“Clearly, transporting families, including children, across states under false pretenses is morally reprehensible, and may be illegal,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.

The migrants' lawyers accessed photographs they took of Perla Huerta, and searched social networks until they found a woman with that name that matches the images, according to the newspaper, who tried unsuccessfully to contact her at her home in Tampa. , Fla.

Migrants wait outside the San Antonio Resource Center in September. JORDAN VONDERHAAR / REUTERS

In Martha's Vineyard no one was aware of the families' arrival, according to local officials.

The recruiter said that when the deception was evident and the migrants were stranded on a highway on the island, Perla instructed him to turn to "the church, the state."

DeSantis has defended himself by saying that "it is better that they can go to a sanctuary jurisdiction", that is, that it does not persecute undocumented migrants to facilitate their deportation.

From living on the streets, to recruiting migrants

The man recounts that he had been living on the streets of San Antonio for almost a month when he met Perla Huerta.

She offered him clothes, food and money, in exchange for looking for other migrants to transfer them to a destination with immigration benefits, according to what he said.

“She said she would hire me and give me some of her cards.

I distributed those cards, keeping in mind what she had told me, which was that we would send them to a place of sanctuary," she told CNN.

“

.

At the hotel I realized that they treated them well, even providing them with food, clothes and laundry services,” she added.

In addition, she said they

in exchange for the trip. 

They offer a reward for 'Perla', the accused of deceiving migrants to be sent to Martha's Vineyard

Sept.

20, 202203:35

Several of the migrants say that a woman, whom they also identified as Perla, tricked them in San Antonio into boarding the flights, promising that they would be transferred to Boston (Massachusetts) and that the procedures for obtaining their permits would be expedited. work as asylum seekers.

The lawsuit filed by Alianza Americas accuses DeSantis of "a premeditated, fraudulent and illegal plan focused on exploiting the vulnerability" of migrants with false promises of employment, housing, educational opportunities and other similar assistance upon arrival.

DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News that all of the immigrants signed consent forms and were provided a packet with information about the island.

“The state has to take care of them”

The flights took off from San Antonio, stopped in Florida, and finally arrived in Martha's Vineyard on September 14.

As soon as they landed, the migrants realized their situation.

“We are adrift.

These people didn't even know we were coming," he said in a cell phone message to the recruiter. 

"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 man said he then sent a message to Perla explaining that the migrants were nervous because there was no one to receive them and they were sleeping on the side of the road.

He showed CNN what she replied: “

.

Church.

The state has to take care of them.”

Later that night, he said she left him an audio message: “I know you were scared at first, but now you're in a much better place and you're going to be taken care of there like you can't imagine.

I know they came to another city but it's Massachusetts.

Believe me, you are going to have a much better life than here or anywhere else.”

The migrants ended up spending 44 hours on Martha's Vineyard and sleeping in an Episcopal church before being taken to the Cape Cod military base on September 16.

The recruiter said he is no longer in contact with Perla, saying she had warned him not to talk to reporters.

"If a reporter calls you," he told her in a message, "don't say anything."