‘Bring it on’: Sacramento mayor, faith groups challenge Ron DeSantis over migrant flights

A group of Sacramento faith leaders are seeking donations and legal aid to help a group of migrants who unexpectedly arrived from Texas over the weekend.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg on Tuesday challenged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to “Bring it on,” as the city’s faith and community leaders put out a call for donations and legal aid to support 36 asylum-seekers who California officials insist were flown to the state capital on private jets chartered by the state of Florida.

“Our community will never say no,” Steinberg said at a news conference Tuesday morning. “If you bring people to our community in need, we will respond in a way that will send a message to the rest of the country and the world.”

The political showdown over immigration escalated Monday when a second flight arrived in Sacramento, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta threatening legal action against DeSantis, the Republican presidential candidate, including kidnapping charges if he’s involved. DeSantis has not taken responsibility for the flights but he was instrumental in luring a group of 49 Venezuelan migrants from a shelter in San Antonio onto private planes bound for Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last year.

But as politicians and legal experts wrangle over the potential consequences of using deceit to traffic migrants from red states to blue, Sacramento faith leaders are working together to provide clothes, shelter, food and job opportunities for the group of migrants, many of whom have court dates in other states and had no idea they were coming to California.

On Saturday, a private jet with 16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia arrived at McClellan Airport from El Paso, Texas, via New Mexico. A second plane carrying 20 more migrants took the same route and arrived Monday morning.

The migrants had been approached outside a migrant center in El Paso last week where they were told people representing an organization that helps immigrants wanted to help them to relocate somewhere they could find shelter and work, according to Sacramento ACT Director Gabby Trejo, one of several faith leaders who spoke during a Tuesday news conference on the migrants. At the time many of the men were sleeping on the street, outside a shelter housing primarily women and children. They weren’t told where they were going or how long the journey would last, Trejo said.

When the first group of migrants landed in Sacramento, they were taken by a chartered bus from the McClellan airport and dropped off at the doorstep of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, Cecilia Flores of Sacramento ACT said. Flores said the driver rang the doorbell of the building, got back on the bus, and left before authorities discovered the group and contacted community organizations for help.

The second group of migrants arrived Monday morning and were quickly greeted with food and water. Officials said the migrants are currently staying in an undisclosed location, but that they are free to leave. On Saturday two of the migrants were picked up by relatives from the Bay Area, but the majority of them have no relatives or friends who live in the area.

Officials say they don’t know whether more flights of migrants are on the way, but that they are ready to receive them if they do.

The migrants have been generally in good spirits and are conforming to their new life in the United States. Flores said the migrants have endured unimaginable difficulties in their trek across Central America, through bug-infested jungles and scorching deserts, toiling daily in strange countries and being confronted with physical dangers throughout. One man told volunteers his two companions died on the journey.

Some of the migrants came in groups and feel safest together, but most are single men seeking work to send money back to their families, Flores said. The migrants largely don’t know each other, having met on the flights to Sacramento, she said.

Now the coalition’s main goal is to help them adapt to their new life. Already volunteers have helped them get phones, clothes from thrift stores and familiar food.

“Where they were coming from they were depending on the generosity of others, so whatever they could get they would take,” Flores said. “Part of our approach is allowing them to define for themselves what type of help they need or what type of clothing they like.”

Trejo pushed back at criticisms about the resources available for migrants, given Sacramento’s issues in dealing with homelessness.

“It’s a lie that we don’t have the resources,” Trejo said. “It’s about a choice, we are making a choice. We said yes to the call and… we’ll continue to figure it out. This isn’t about politics. This is about a group of people who didn’t make the choice to come to this region.”