Federal inspector general probing use of funds by DeSantis to fly migrants to Martha's Vineyard
WASHINGTON – A federal inspector general for the U.S. Treasury Department is looking into whether federal funds earmarked for pandemic recovery and used last month by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to fly migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts were improperly used.
In a letter dated Oct. 7 and obtained by CBS4, Deputy Inspector General Richard Kelmar from the Treasury Office of Inspector General wrote to the six congressional members from the Massachusetts congressional delegation who requested the probe, confirming the investigation.
"As part of its oversight responsibilities for the SLFRF (State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund) TIG has audit work planned on recipients' compliance with eligible use guidance," Kelmar wrote.
"In addition, as part of our oversight work of the Coronavirus Relief Fund established by the CARES Act, we have already sought information from Florida about appropriate use of that fund."
As part of Florida's budget approved this fiscal year, legislators passed $12 million to pay for the "transport of unauthorized aliens out of Florida," which came from interest earnings from federal COVID aid dollars.
"There's really two main issues that everyone should be able to understand: which is that it requires them to be unauthorized aliens; and the other is that they're from the state," explained State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat.
In fact, State Sen. Pizzo said there are very few restrictions on how the interest money is used, as long as it falls within state law. However, he pointed out, the migrants were in Texas and may have been asylum seekers, not "unauthorized aliens."
The flights of 48 people, mostly Venezuelans, started in San Antonio, Texas; stopped at an airport in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview; and then headed north to Martha's Vineyard.
"If we are going into the state of Texas and the state [of Florida] is going to contend that a 10- to 20-minute stop on the tarmac somewhere in Florida qualifies as being 'from the state,' I think they are going to have a difficult time in their argument," Pizzo said. "We hear all the time that there's an immigration crisis, that there's 800,000 undocumented illegal aliens in the state of Florida. Not to be able to find 48 here, within the four corners of the state, begs the question: What is this besides political theater?"
We reached out to the office of Gov. DeSantis, and Communications Director Taryn Fenske gave CBS4 this statement:
"Weeks ago, the Office of Policy and Budget (OPB) spoke with the US Department of the Treasury's (Treasury) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) about using interest gained from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program to transport illegal immigrants voluntarily to sanctuary jurisdictions, … OPB articulated to Treasury's OIG that our use of this interest, as appropriated by the Florida Legislature, is permissible under the SLFRF Final Rule. Reviews by Treasury are typical and, as stated by the OIG, are 'part of its oversight responsibilities.'"
Last month, attorneys representing some of the migrants filed a class-action lawsuit against the Governor, the State and the Florida Department of Transportation.