ORLANDO, Fla. — The state of Florida is paying for another plane full of migrants to be moved out of Texas.
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State records show the payment to the charter plane company “Vertol Systems” has already gone through, all while new questions arise about the immigration status of the people who have been caught in the middle.
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Many of the migrants who were transported from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last week were refugees from Venezuela.
On Tuesday, another chartered flight out of San Antonio reportedly headed towards Delaware.
Records on the state’s website show two payments to Vertol Systems, one from September 8th for $615,000 and another from Monday for $950,000.
The company is based in Portland, but has offices in Florida. They’ve also given $10,000 to the Republican Party of Florida.
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Governor Ron DeSantis was in Bradenton Tuesday defending the spending and transport of the migrants from Texas to the northeast.
“The only thing I hear them getting outraged about is you have 50 that end up in Martha’s Vineyard, then they get really upset,” DeSantis said.
Meanwhile, there are fresh questions about the immigration status of the people on the flights.
“Everyone is entitled to due process under the law,” immigration attorney Frank Symphorien-Saavedra said. “So all of these immigrants, regardless of their backgrounds or origins, they’re al entitled to have an opportunity to present their case in court.”
Symphorien-Saavedra notes many of the immigrants may have been seeking asylum, which is protected by both federal and international law for people In circumstances where they’ve been “persecuted or victimized by oppressive regimes,” as in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
A second flight that Florida has paid for is yet to leave Texas. WFTV attempted to contact the company responsible for the flights at their Florida office, but the person who answered hung up the phone.
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