Asylum Seekers Tricked into Traveling to California with False Promises
(CNN) – Asylum seekers transported from Texas to Sacramento, the California capital, two weeks ago say they were deceived by individuals who convinced them to make the journey with promises of work and shelter.
A total of 36 migrants were taken from Texas to New Mexico, and then transported on private flights to California on June 2 and June 5, according to Eddie Carmona, campaign director for the nonprofit PICO California. Most of the migrants, two of whom spoke to CNN, are from Venezuela and Colombia, while others are from Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
“We are here because they offered us work,” said one of the migrants, a 34-year-old Venezuelan who wished to remain anonymous for legal reasons. “We were deceived by the people who provided the flight service. They offered us work and housing.”
Florida Takes Responsibility for Transfer of Migrants
Investigators from the California Attorney General’s Office discovered that although the migrants came from Texas, they were carrying documents allegedly from the Florida government. The documents listed Vertol Systems Company Inc. as the contractor behind the flights. CNN obtained a signed contract showing that the Florida Division of Emergency Management hired Vertol Systems to relocate the migrants in May. This is the second time the Florida Government has worked with the contractor since the fall of 2022.
Officials from the Florida Division of Emergency Management have maintained that all the trips were voluntary.
According to Tara Gallegos, a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Rob Bonta, members of the first group were told to sign documents before boarding the plane to Sacramento. However, not all of the migrants, who are not fluent in English, understood where they were going and not all of them signed the forms.
A view of St. Anthony Croatian Catholic Church where migrants were transported in Los Angeles, June 14, 2023. (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Venezuelan migrant, who had only been in the US for a week before being transported to California on the first flight, told CNN that four people approached him at a migrant shelter in El Paso, Texas, and promised him a job and a place to live if he agreed to go to California.
The migrant, who doesn’t speak English, said he signed documents without understanding them because he trusted the promises made to him.
A 31-year-old Colombian woman, who was on the second flight, said she was approached by two men at a shelter in El Paso and was promised work and housing in California.
The migrants stated that the people who approached them never identified themselves and only made promises. The Venezuelan migrant mentioned that the aid “came from Florida,” but did not provide further details.
The Colombian migrant expressed her disappointment, saying, “When we arrived, every dream, everything you thought about, just vanished.”
“It’s Not Fair That They Play with Our Feelings”
Upon arrival in Sacramento, the asylum seekers from the first flight were taken to a parking lot that they did not recognize, according to the Venezuelan migrant.
The parking lot belonged to the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, where the migrants were left at the gate, as stated by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The people who the migrants believed would guide them disappeared, and the signed documents were not returned to them, the Venezuelan migrant told CNN.
“We were supposed to be handed over to other people who would take us directly to where we were staying. And from there, to work. That’s why we came here, to work,” he added.
Both migrants emphasized that they did not understand the politics in the United States and came to California solely for work opportunities.
Migrants from Texas who were transported to New Mexico before flying to California hope to receive help from a local church in Sacramento. CNN has blurred the faces in this image to protect identities.
“I don’t think we should get involved in politics because we are people who have come here after suffering,” said the Venezuelan migrant, who arrived in Texas on May 27 after traveling predominantly on foot for three months from Venezuela to the US to escape the “difficult” economic situation in their country.
“We came to work, to earn the goodwill of many people, because many people may think that we came here to Sacramento looking for other things, not to work, not to improve our lives economically, so as not to be able to send money to the little ones at home who are waiting for us.”
The Colombian woman, who spoke to CNN, said she endured a grueling two-month journey from Colombia to the US-Mexico border because she wants to support her family. She agreed to go to California because she was promised a job.
“It doesn’t matter what you have to go through because it’s hard to get here. But you have your family in mind,” she commented. “Of course, because they say work and you have to work… the bad thing is that we trusted a person whose intentions we didn’t know.”
“It is not fair that they played with our feelings, that they promised us things that they would not fulfill,” she added.
“They Were Lied to and Deceived,” Say Defenders
Shortly after the relocation, the Florida Division of Emergency Management released a video claiming to show some of the migrants being transported to California. The two migrants interviewed by CNN confirmed their presence in the video and stated that they were happy to travel at that time because they had been promised work and housing.
Officials from the Florida Division of Emergency Management insisted that the migrants who were transferred to Sacramento did so voluntarily, countering allegations by California authorities that they were tricked into making the trips.
“Florida’s voluntary relocation is just that: voluntary,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Alecia Collins. “Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated that they wanted to go to California. A contractor was present and ensured their safe transfer to a third-party NGO, Catholic Charities, which is used and funded by the federal government.”
According to Gabby Trejo, executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together, most of the migrants are young and the first in their families to come to the US. She stated that many of them walked for three to seven months to pursue their
