A former US Army combat medic and counterintelligence agent named Perla Huerta reportedly recruited migrants for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ controversial flights in September that carried Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard.
Police officials, a lawyer and migrants who encountered her pointed to Ms. Huerta as a flight recruiter, The New York Times .
Ms Huerta served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and was discharged last month after two decades of service. Times reports citing her military records.
It is unclear whether Ms. Huerta was employed by the state of Florida or Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had nothing to do with the departure of migrants from the Lone Star state.
The Independent Ms. Worth could not be reached for comment.
The potential identification helps solve one of the flight’s lingering mysteries: who recruited the nearly 50 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, aboard the flights.
Migrants say they were promised work papers, jobs and even paid to board a flight, and urged others to join them.
A 27-year-old Venezuelan migrant named Emmanuel told Report from San Antonio that a woman named Perla gave him $200 from an “anonymous benefactor” to recruit other asylum seekers near the city’s migrant center in San Antonio, Texas, where the flights originated.
“Perla told me that in these sanctuary states, the state can help migrants,” Emanuel said. “I was just an intermediary because I like helping people.” “A lot of people really come with no plans, they want to come and just work and have a hand to shelter them,” he added. “I just saw it as a sweet way of doing it for good.”
They were even given a pamphlet with false claims about the “Massachusetts refugee benefits” they would receive upon arrival on the East Coast.
“These brochures are not ours and we are not sure who is printing or distributing them at this time,” Falah Hashem, head of the state’s refugee agency, said. told The Independent.
Migrants on board the Martha’s Vineyard plane sued Governor DeSantiscalling the trips a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme.”
