Sacramento Migrant Crisis

Statement by Lawyers for Martha’s Vineyard Migrants on Continuing Investigation Into Recent Sacramento Flights

Shortly after media reports emerged that two charter planes carrying over 30 migrants, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, were flown from New Mexico to Sacramento, California, as part of a political stunt engineered by Governor Ron DeSantis, Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) sprang into action. Our attorneys traveled to Sacramento to assist community groups who are helping the migrants, sharing lessons we learned from similar community-based efforts following the DeSantis-engineered flights to Martha’s Vineyard.

LCR attorneys continue to investigate the current situation on the ground in Sacramento.  

In speaking with the Sacramento migrants, we are finding many similarities to our Martha’s Vineyard clients. Just as our Martha’s Vineyard clients were preyed upon by recruiters in San Antonio when they were at their most vulnerable, the Sacramento migrants lacked food and shelter when they were recruited for these flights in El Paso. 

Similarly, upon arrival, the Sacramento migrants were abandoned at the doorstep of a church without any prior notice to anyone there, just as our Martha’s Vineyard clients were unceremoniously dumped outside a social service agency. 

As with the Martha’s Vineyard flights, the perpetrators of these most recent flights used vulnerable migrants as pawns in a morally repugnant game of politics before leaving them to fend for themselves in a completely unfamiliar place.

The callous and cruel treatment of our most vulnerable cannot stand. As we have before, LCR denounces political figures who use human beings as political pawns. 

We applaud the community allies in Sacramento, including Sacramento Area Congregations Together (Sacramento ACT) and PICO California, who are working tirelessly around the clock to assist the newly arrived migrants. LCR attorneys are proud to be working in partnership with the Sacramento coalition.