{"id":25391,"date":"2022-09-23T17:56:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T21:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=25391"},"modified":"2022-09-23T17:56:12","modified_gmt":"2022-09-23T21:56:12","slug":"florida-legislator-sues-desantis-claiming-illegal-use-of-state-funds-for-the-migrant-relocation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/09\/23\/florida-legislator-sues-desantis-claiming-illegal-use-of-state-funds-for-the-migrant-relocation\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida legislator sues DeSantis claiming illegal use of state funds for the migrant relocation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Democratic Florida state senator filed suit Thursday to stop&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theledger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2022\/09\/19\/politifact-legal-desantis-fly-immigrants-marthas-vineyard-what-we-know\/10425979002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>&nbsp;from using state funds to cover the cost of his controversial&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theledger.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2022\/09\/16\/florida-taxpayers-paid-bill-desantis-send-migrants-marthas-vineyard\/10399505002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">migrant relocation program<\/a>, saying the Florida Legislature did not give him the authority to use the money to transport migrants from other states.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"185\" height=\"244\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 185px) 100vw, 185px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/s38_5345.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25394\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his 15-page lawsuit, filed late Thursday in Leon County Circuit Court, state Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, alleges the DeSantis administration failed to meet the requirements set by the Florida Legislature to only transport \u201cunauthorized aliens\u201d from within the state. The suit also alleges that the Florida Department of Transportation failed to properly bid the contracts to vendors to provide the migrant transportation services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Named as defendants are DeSantis, Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis and Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared W. Perdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe state is completely violating the law,\u201d Pizzo&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/immigration\/florida-migrant-moving-company-gave-gop-cash-ties-desantis-immigration-rcna48967\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told NBC News<\/a>. \u201cThey haven\u2019t provided any scintilla of evidence for how this is legal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement to media outlets on Thursday night,&nbsp;DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said \u201cSenator Pizzo never misses an opportunity for his 15 minutes of fame and is challenging an action on an appropriation he voted for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Money for the migrant relocation program was included as part of the state&#8217;s massive $109 billion budget, which was unanimously approved by the Florida Senate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n        <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-5b37dd674b67980334b3cf9fec2acb48\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content aligncenter ep-percentage-width   ep-content-protection-disabled\" data-embed-type=\"PDF\" data-embed-url=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/pizzo-lawsuit-1.pdf\">\n            <div class=\"embedpress-inner-iframe emebedpress-unit-percent ep-doc-5b37dd674b67980334b3cf9fec2acb48\" style=\"max-width:600%\" id=\"embedpress-pdf-1663969910623\">\n                <div >\n                    <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper\"><div class=\"position-right-wraper gutenberg-pdf-wraper\"><iframe title=\"pizzo lawsuit\" class=\"embedpress-embed-document-pdf embedpress-pdf-1663969910623\" style=\"width:600%;height:600px; max-width:100%; display: inline-block\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/embedpress\/assets\/pdf\/web\/viewer.html?&#038;file=https%3A%2F%2Flakelandgazette.info%2Fnews%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F09%2Fpizzo-lawsuit-1.pdf#key=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\" frameborder=\"0\" oncontextmenu=\"return false;\"><\/iframe> <\/div><\/div>                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suit comes more than a week after DeSantis, who is widely considered a top 2024 Republican presidential candidate,&nbsp;drew national media attention when he ordered two planeloads of nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants to be flown from Texas to the wealthy&nbsp;island of Martha\u2019s Vineyard, with a fueling stop in northwest Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move angered Democrats, immigrant advocates and others who said the Republican governor was using migrants as \u201cpolitical pawns.&nbsp;DeSantis said he took the action to call attention to President Biden\u2019s \u201creckless\u201d border security policies and steer undocumented immigrants away from Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeSantis did not notify any local or federal authorities about the migrant flights to Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Venezuelan migrants are not here illegally because they were &#8220;paroled&#8221; into the U.S. as asylum seekers and allowed to remain pending the outcome of their cases in immigration court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DeSantis said the state hired&nbsp;a contractor in south Texas to seek out migrants who may be headed to Florida. He has said he wants to identify more migrants in Texas and take them to \u201csanctuary jurisdictions&#8221; around the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At a news conference in Miami, DeSantis said his migrant relocation program is the &#8220;most effective&#8221; way to steer asylum seekers and other migrants away from Florida.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The price tag for the Massachusetts flights was initially put at $615,000, but the latest state records show that Florida paid another $950,000 to the Vertol Systems Company, a Destin, Fla.-based aviation firm, bringing the total spent so far to more than $1.5 million to move nearly 50 migrants.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DeSantis administration has not publicly released the contract with Vertol Systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Democratic Florida state senator filed suit Thursday to stop&nbsp;Gov. Ron DeSantis&nbsp;from using state funds to cover the cost of his controversial&nbsp;migrant relocation program, saying the Florida Legislature did not&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[3479],"class_list":["post-25391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-florida-legislator-sues-desantis-claiming-illegal-use-of-state-funds-for-the-migrant-relocation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}