Gov. of California Gavin Newsom and State Atty. General Rob Bonta is calling on the US Justice Department to open an investigation into the transportation of migrants to Sacramento as part of a program overseen by the Florida governor. Ron DeSantis.

Thirty-six migrants were sent to Sacramento from Texas in June, a move for which Republican presidential hopefuls have taken credit. While DeSantis has defended Florida’s taxpayer-funded flights, saying they are part of a “voluntary relocation” program, he has been accused of using people as political pawns in a national debate over immigration policy.

Some of the migrants sent to Sacramento

refuted

denied Desantis’ claims that their trip was intentional and told The Times in June that they had been falsely promised jobs, shelter and lawyers in exchange for boarding the plane.

In a letter addressed to US Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland on Thursday urged top California Democrats to federal officials to open criminal and civil investigations into the case, saying the department has “a unique ability” to oversee the case.

They join Bexar County, Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar, a Democrat, in doing the same, as his office investigates a similar flight of migrants sent from his state to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

In another case, a busload of migrants was sent to Los Angeles last month by the Republican governor of Texas. Greg Abbott. GOP officials who run the programs say they are sending migrants to blue states

more progressive

“sanctuary” policy.

“We will not stand by and watch people be used for cheap political stunts,” Bonta said on Thursday.

In his letter to the Justice Department, Bonta pointed to recent reporting by The Times and other news outlets, saying that, as in the Martha’s Vineyard case, migrants may have been “seduced by misleading representations about access to jobs, housing or other services”.

The California Justice Department is investigating the case, with Newsom alluding to kidnapping charges against DeSantis.