Updated 5:10 p.m.
Over the span of four days, two private flights carrying more than 35 individuals migrating to the United States have unexpectedly arrived in Sacramento.
Here’s what we know:
Who are on these flights and why are they arriving in Sacramento?
On Friday, a private flight carrying 16 individuals migrating from Venezuela and Colombia arrived in Sacramento. Those individuals were then dropped off in front of the Roman Catholic Church diocese’s headquarters on Broadway.
The migrants had documents that appeared to be issued by the state of Florida, though the circumstances surrounding their arrival was still under investigation, Attorney General Rob Bonta said on Saturday.
On Monday morning, another flight arrived at the Sacramento Executive Airport, this time carrying 20 individuals migrating to the United States. Bonta’s office confirmed that agents from the California Department of Justice made contact with the people on the flight.
Sacramento County spokesperson Kim Nava says social workers were dispatched to the airport on Monday to make contact with the plane’s passengers.
All 36 of the people who have arrived in Sacramento are adults, according to Sacramento County spokesperson Janna Haynes, and are “safe, secure and being diligently cared for.”
“In addition to meeting basic needs, migrants are receiving medical care and crisis counseling as needed,” she wrote in a statement on Monday. “Many have pending appointments and need help coordinating their attendance.”
In both cases, it appears the migrants were approached in Texas, taken to New Mexico and then flown to California's capital, Bonta's office said.
Who is responsible for sending the migrants to Sacramento?
The Associated Press has reported that the individuals on the plane possessed documents that indicated they were “transported through a program run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and carried out by contractor Vertol Systems Co.” Neither government officials in Florida nor officials with Vertol Systems responded to the AP’s requests to discuss the story.
“The contractor operating the flight that arrived today appears to be the same contractor who transported the migrants last week,” a spokesperson for Bonta’s office said Monday. “As was the case with the migrants who arrived on Friday, the migrants who arrived today carried documents indicating that their transportation to California involved the State of Florida."
The AP also reports that the migrants were approached in Texas, offered help finding jobs and assistance, and were unwittingly sent to California.
What is the response of California government officials?
On Saturday, Bonta announced that his office opened an investigation into the “circumstances by which these individuals were brought to California,” and will also evaluate whether violations of civil or criminal law took place.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s office has also joined the investigation, along with other local and nonprofit organizations.
Bonta said that California — and Sacramento — will “welcome these individuals with open arms and provide them with the respect, compassion, and care they will need after such a harrowing experience.”
“Sacramento represents the best of American values,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement Saturday. “We always welcome ‘the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses,’ and we always will.”
Kate Wolffe and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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