Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t given up on migrant flights to liberal states, as long as those migrants understand he’s not going to offer them any more help after they’ve been dropped off.
Internal documents provided to the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida by nonprofit organization American Oversight shed light on not only how much DeSantis has paid out of taxpayer money to these companies, but lessons learned from the last set of migrant flights –– primarily, it seems, not to lure migrants onto a plane to another state with false promises of food, shelter, or jobs.
“Contractor shall ensure each participating individual understands and accepts that no goods or services, such as lodging accommodations, additional travel, or other arrangements will be provided by Contractor after arrival at the destination,” the contracts state.
An immigration expert said this is likely to avoid legal peril or accusations of improper behavior while still allowing DeSantis to score political points with conservative pundits and voters.
As previously reported, the companies named in the documents are Vertol Systems Company Inc., GardaWorld Federal Services and ARS Global Emergency Management, and include details on pricing, as well as requirements for the migrants that the companies must abide by.
According to the Florida Department of Emergency Management-provided scope of work, which outlines duties, payments and more, the initial contract is intended to end June 30, 2025, with about $500,000 in payments contingent upon an annual appropriation by the Florida Legislature.
Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, the scope of work says the migrants to be transported must have documentation showing they have already been processed and released by the U.S. federal government.
This year the state’s legislature allocated $12 million to hire contractors to search for migrants and transport them to liberal states.
While the governor’s office declined to comment on the contracts, last year, DeSantis made it clear that he planned to continue the practice of relocating recent immigrants to the U.S. in blue states.
“The Legislature gave me $12 million,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we’re protecting the people of the state of Florida.”
But Latino civil rights organization executive Ray Mancero called out the Florida government for using Latino people fleeing poverty and danger in a fight over policy and politics.
“You’re using migrants as a ploy to score political points,” said Mancero, vice president of the southwest chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “You should not be scoring political points off the plight of humans who are suffering.”
‘A political fight, political spin’
Vertol, the aviation company that carried out the initial migrant flights in 2022 in exchange for about $1.5 million, has strong ties to Florida congressman Matt Gaetz and the state’s public safety czar Larry Keefe, who were part of DeSantis’s transition team. Keefe, who represented Vertol in a dozen lawsuits from 2010-2017, now runs the migrant flights program.
While the other proposals ran between 15 and 60 pages long, Vertol’s proposal stands in contrast. It ran just 5 pages.
A contract amendment that describes “additional assurances to ensure the program is conducted properly and efficiently” between DEM and GardaWorld was signed just days after the state was criticized for relocating migrants from the Texas border to Sacramento. Migrants on those flights told reporters they were duped by Florida officials who promised them shelter, food and employment.
Vertol signed a similar amendment May 19.
The amendments state the migrants must be sober, give consent, be over 18 years of age, and must understand and accept they may be photographed or recorded on video if they agree to transportation services.
Additionally, contractors must ensure participants understand the companies will provide transportation only, not employment or accommodations.
This stands in stark contrast to what migrants told media members in 2022 they were promised upon arrival.
Venezuelan migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard last fall, before these contracts were finalized, were also promised well-paying jobs, free housing and transportation upon arrival; they were even given $50 gift cards to incentivize them to take the flight.
Instead, they were abandoned on the Massachusetts island with no place to stay, jobs or understanding of what had happened, according to USA TODAY. After transportation and lawyers fees, it cost the state roughly $44,000 to fly each migrant to Martha’s Vineyard.
The Florida Department of Emergency Management did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Miami-based immigration lawyer Sui Chung has over a decade of experience as an immigration attorney. She serves on the board of governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is a member of the organization’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Liaison Committee.
Chung said these new clauses may be because the DeSantis administration was previously accused of trafficking the migrants it flew to Martha’s Vineyard and to Sacramento. By offering fewer incentive this time around, she said, they’re avoiding liability or the appearance of impropriety.
She added that the federal paperwork requirement –– showing migrants had been processed and released at the border –– was likely an attack on the Biden Administration.
Reviewing the paperwork gives them the means to begin tracking who has been released by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Based off those statistics, she said, the DeSantis administration can make accusations that the system is not working and sending many immigrants into the U.S under Biden, spurring fear in the public.
“It’s a political fight … a political spin,” said Chung.
But, she said, the system is working the way it is supposed to. Migrants who have crossed the border and been processed by federal agents and released are, in fact, following the law.
“There are mechanisms that are in place that people have to comply with (such as background checks and check-ins with federal officers),” Chung said. “You have people who are so desperate to comply … that they wait for their check-ins in lines hours and hours long … often hours away from where they’re staying … because they want to get status in a lawful way.
“They’re doing everything they’re supposed to be doing under the law.”
From outreach to arrival
The GardaWorld and ARS proposals received by the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida are nearly 100% redacted.
Preceding the ARS proposal is a letter by an ARS lawyer. The letter states that the proposal contains “confidential trade secret information.”
As such, not much is clear about these proposals. The records, which contain the company’s vision for the program and services it could provide for migrant flights, were almost entirely blacked out, save for headers and footers.
While GardaWorld is perhaps best-known among the public for moving banks’ money in armed trucks, it also offers emergency medical support, security and crisis response teams.
It is “the largest privately-held security concern in the world,” according to its website and provides an array of domestic services to state and federal governments as well as commercial customers, such as L’Oreal, BMO Banks and the American Red Cross.
Vertol Systems Company, which Florida contracted in September 2022 to transport migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, was awarded another contract for a lump sum of $487,000 for its development phase, according to the records.
The documents provided also contained an unredacted proposal by emergency management consulting firm Hagerty Consulting. Although Hagerty’s proposal was not accepted, its documents contained significant details about how the company would identify migrants to relocate and what it considered necessary to transport migrants across the country, including the fact that it considered it Florida’s responsibility to identify migrants for its flights.
Furthermore, the contract said that if transportation is delayed, the state would also be on the hook for shelter and support services.
Hagerty also listed the personnel needed to staff its migrant processing facility, where the state would interview migrants, check their immigration status and later house them until their departure.
Included in the proposal are one to two nurses per shift, EMT staff, case workers, a licensed mental health provider, licensed security officers, legal aid, translators and “Rabbi, Chaplain, Muslim Minister, Buddhist and Hindu Monk, recommended, State provided.”
Chung approved of the inclusion of medical personnel and spiritual leaders for anything related to migrant services, as in her experience, “it’s very unusual if something completely horrible didn’t just happen” to people who have recently crossed the border. They are often desperately in need of medical care and mental health services after their journey, she said.
“People are in a dire situation at that point, after you know, traveling and being injured, robbed and beaten, raped,” she said.
In contrast to the state’s insistence that migrants not be assured goods, services or shelter upon arrival in the new state, Hagerty promised to connect migrants with social services at their destination. Later in the proposal, however, Hagerty wrote that “NGOs and social service providers will execute these functions.”
Hagerty noted that “the following services and service providers would be recommended through nonprofit and private channels at final destination,” and would “provide lists to service providers to the State of FL.”
The services included housing, food and nutrition, health care, child care, mentorship and sponsorship and job search, training and placement, according to the proposal.
For this, Hagerty estimated payment to be a lump sum of $295,585. It was not awarded a contract.