government Gavin Newsom took his feud with Gov. Ron DeSanti hit new heights on Monday, seemingly threatening him with kidnapping charges after California officials said South American migrants had been sent to Sacramento by the state of Florida as a political stunt.

Newsom, a Democrat, cited the state’s kidnapping laws in a tweet to the Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful, whom he called a small, pathetic man.

This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charge? Newsom said in the tweet, referring to DeSantis’ action last year

to send when he sent

a group of Venezuelan migrants to the wealthy liberal vacation spot in Massachusetts.

Sixteen on the weekend, 16

migrants from

Venezuela and Columbia

goods

transported from Texas to New Mexico and then

flown on a chartered plane to Sacramento, where they were dropped off

Friday in a church

,

Newsom said

.

on Monday,

a

second

plane with 20 migrants arrived in Sacramento

on Monday

. Both groups

were flown by the same contractor and were

according to officials at the California Department of Justice with documents indicating their transportation was to the state of Florida.

Newsom said his administration is working with the agency to “investigate the circumstances” around who paid for the air travel, whether migrants were misled and

if applicable

or laws were broken, including kidnapping.

but I

It is

Calm

unclear what legal action the state plans to take

if applicable

. After Newsom’s threat of

potential

kidnapping charges, his spokesman deferred questions to Atty. General Rob Bonta’s office. Bonta said over the weekend that he was evaluating possible criminal or civil action, but did not release additional details on Monday.

DeSantis representatives did not respond to written questions from The Times. His campaign press team, which operates on Twitter, made no mention of Newsom’s tweet allegation, and DeSantis did not mention the incident on a Monday morning appearance on Fox News radio.

the question

now

is whether Newsom will proceed with legal action over the interstate transportation of migrants or risk being charged with using the incident to stage his own version of political theater

as the two governors jockey for national attention

.

It’s powerful for both bases, like most immigration movements,” said Mike Madrid, a political adviser to the GOP. “Republicans love DeSantis for this, and Democrats love the opportunity to demonstrate Democratic acceptance and tolerance. ”

Newsom has been known to tweet sharp political messages without a fully fleshed out policy to support them. Earlier this year, he stated that California Done doing business with Walgreens after the pharmacy chain said it wouldn’t distribute an abortion pill in some states, but its government had to reverse that

due to federal law.

“Tweeting is not a policy,” Newsom’s assistant said at the time.

In another case, when gas prices rose last year, Newsom took to Twitter to advocate for a new windfall tax on oil companies, tell Californians they are scamming you and the plan would send you money back directly. But six months later, Newsom backtracked on that demand and instead worked with the legislature to pass a bill that would increase oversight of the industry.

Last year, when DeSantis claimed responsibility for sending dozens of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Newsom wrote a letter to U.S. Atty. General Merrick Garland which he posted on Twitter demand a federal investigation. Asked about the status of that request, a Newsom spokesperson queried the Justice Department, which did not respond to an investigation Monday.

Calvin Kia Abbasi, a spokesperson for PICO California, a faith-based nonprofit that helps support Sacramento’s migrants, said they should be redressed by the state and benefit from due process.

They were taken out of nowhere and dropped in the middle of the capital

Oh

Me from California with nothing on their backs, he said. They deserve actions that serve their inherent dignity as human beings, and anything less than that would be an insult to their humanity.

Affected migrants in California can join a federal class

–

lawsuit against DeSantis and Florida officials regarding the 2022 Martha’s Vineyard incident.

The pending lawsuit, brought by Lawyers for Civil Rights, alleges Florida officials, including DeSantis, chartered planes from Texas to Massachusetts as part of a plan “to defraud vulnerable immigrants to further a political motive.”

Oren Sellstrom, director of litigation for Lawyers for Civil Rights, said his organization has lawyers “now on the ground” in California investigating the latest orchestrated flight and whether it complies with their lawsuit.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of affected migrants in Massachusetts, accuses DeSantis and Florida officials of illegal seizure, false arrest and fraud.

“There is certainly exposure to both the civil and criminal sides for individuals or private companies that engage in this type of despicable behavior,” Sellstrom said. “The long-lasting impact of a stunt like this… people were traumatized when they realized they had been abandoned.”

This isn’t the first time this has happened in Sacramento, home of California’s Democratic leaders. Last year, eight Venezuelan migrants with little money and some without shoes were flown from Texas to Sacramento.

Autumn Gonzalez, a NorCal Resist organizer, said those men remain in Sacramento and have been unable to secure a legal way of working. Her organization continues to provide them with housing, food and resources as they are not eligible for social safety net services provided by the state due to their immigration status.

“If more people come, they’re welcome here. We’d love to have them,” she said. “We just don’t think people should be used as political pawns and as some kind of statement about immigration. It’s just wrong.”

The Marthas Vineyard flight drew national attention and brought DeSantis to the forefront of the immigration debate, along with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who last year

bust migrants to home in Washington DC

from Vice President Kamala Harris. Conservative media were particularly enthralled, said Howard Polskin, the author of Righting, a newsletter that monitors right-wing media. This time, though, it’s a ghost story, Polskin said. It’s been ignored. The muted interest reflects how DeSantis is having a harder time dominating the political conversation on the right after appearing to be on the rise in the run-up to the 2022 election. With more candidates throwing their hats in the ring, he’s not getting as much attention, Polskin said.

Last month, DeSantis signed a bill supporting the relocation program that funded the flight to Martha’s Vineyard. The legislation provided $12 million to relocate migrants, Comprehensive requirements for companies to verify the legal status of employees and mandate hospitals admitting Medicaid patients

Unpleasant

ask questions about citizenship on intake forms, a measure that some immigrant rights advocates say could deter people living in the US illegally from seeking care.

As Newsom has increasingly tried to burn his credentials as a National Democratic figure, DeSantis has been one of his favorite foils.

He paid for a television commercial in the Sunshine State that dumped on DeSantis and urged the citizens to join the fight, or join us in California. He challenged the governor of Florida to a televised debate. He traveled to DeSanti’s home port to crush efforts to reshape education in the state.

DeSantis also modified Newsom,

to remark

said in a speech at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley that the governor of California seems very concerned about what is happening in Florida and

proverb

that Americans voted with their feet by moving away from blue states.

Scott Jennings, a Republican adviser, noted that DeSantis has often achieved political success by challenging the administration of liberal governors. He enjoyed pitting his administration against that of the then-Governor of New York during the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrew Cuomo, who later resigned over allegations of sexual misconduct. DeSantis kind of gained fame in the party as a real fighter by being constantly compared to Cuomo, Jennings said. He’s gone, so the next best opponent is Newsom, who the Republicans say is ridiculous. although

poll showed

the

Marthas Vineyard’s migrant haul didn’t quite change the dynamics of the 2022 midterm elections, the actions struck a chord with the GOP base. Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who leads focus groups with voters across the country, said voters speak unequivocally in positive terms about DeSantis sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and cite this as one of the top reasons they approve of him.

For a time, DeSantis performed strongly in Longwell’s focus groups,

But

said the strategist

But

there has been a…

noticeable

shift back to former President Trump,

especially as a former president

who has started attacking the governor of Florida.

The latest round of runs may give DeSantis another chance to capture primary voters’ attention.

He tries to outsmart Trump, which sometimes manifests as who seems to be the strongest or the hardest against illegal immigration, Longwell said.