Texas sheriff opens investigation into transport of Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard
BEXAR COUNTY, TX - The Bexar County, Texas Sheriff is launching a criminal investigation into the transport of 48 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard last week.
Sheriff Javier Salazar said on Wednesday, September 14, in San Antonio, a Venezuelan migrant was paid a "bird dog fee to recruit approximately 50 migrants from the area around a migrant resource center."
Salazar said to his understanding the migrants were "lured under false pretenses" into staying at a hotel for a few days, then shuttled to an airplane, then flown to Florida and eventually to Martha's Vineyard "under false pretenses."
The migrants were promised work and other solutions to their problems, he said in a news conference Monday, adding that the migrants were moved to Martha's Vineyard for a "video op."
The main point of contact and source of information in opening this investigation, Salazar said, has been Massachusetts immigration attorney Rachel Self.
NEW: Immigration attorney Rachel Self is here at St. Anthony’s Church on Martha’s Vineyard and has been interviewing Venezuelan migrants about how they got here. She calls the entire ordeal “kidnapping.” #WBZ pic.twitter.com/Rs5NfI49WP
— Kristina Rex (@KristinaRex) September 15, 2022
Self told WBZ-TV she was at Joint Base Cape Cod all day Monday working with the migrants, many of whom she represents.
Sheriff Salazar is a Democrat, elected into his position in Texas in 2016. In his news conference, he called the transport of these migrants at "best, a tragedy, and at worst, a crime." He told reporters he is open to working with other investigative agencies. Part of the next step will be getting firsthand accounts from migrants.
Salazar told reporters the migrants were in the U.S. legally at the time they were taken, potentially fleeing for fear of persecution in Venezuela and seeking asylum in the U.S. "When you are playing with human lives...that does tend to bother me quite a bit," he said.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has taken credit for the private plane to the Vineyard, but the Bexar County Sheriff says he isn't naming any suspects yet.
In a statement, DeSantis said: "Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and 'left to fend for themselves.' Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected. Unless the MA national guard has abandoned these individuals, they have been provided accommodations, sustenance, clothing and more options to succeed following their unfair enticement into the United States, unlike the 53 immigrants who died in a truck found abandoned in Bexar County this June."