UNLIKE MOST INTRIGUE-FILLED capers, this one came with the ultimate question that’s usually answered at the end of the story – whodunit? – already settled. 

When two plane loads of Venezuelan migrants from Texas landed last month on Martha’s Vineyard, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly took credit. 

“Yes, Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard today were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” DeSantis’s communications director, Taryn Fenske, told Fox News Digital on September 14.  

But things have gotten murky from there, with DeSantis now less than forthcoming in filling in all the details of how the human transport operation was planned, paid for, and carried out. 

DeSantis appears to have paid for the trips out of a pot of $12 million in a budget bill the governor signed in June that was earmarked for transporting undocumented migrants out of Florida. But further details on the operation that whisked 48 migrants to the Vineyard not from Florida, but from Texas, have been scant. Even fellow Republican governor Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, who has been leading the charge in sending migrants to northern states, was kept in the dark by DeSantis about the trip. 

A key figure in the operation was a woman who identified herself only by her first name, “Perla,” who the migrants said recruited them for the trip on the streets of San Antonio, promising them housing and jobs once they got there. 

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that, based on information from a criminal investigation being carried out by the San Antonio sheriff’s office, the mystery woman is Perla Huerta, a former combat medic and counterintelligence agent who was discharged from the US Army in August. The Times said she lives in Tampa, Florida, but said its efforts to contact her there and by phone were unsuccessful. 

While she has already drawn the attention of those pursuing the criminal investigation in Texas, Huerta could also find herself joining DeSantis and his transportation secretary as a named defendant in a federal class-action lawsuit filed last month by Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights. The suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, alleges multiple constitutional violations, including illegal seizure and depriving the migrant plaintiffs of equal protection and due process rights. 

In the lawsuit, the woman alleged to have recruited the migrants in San Antonio is listed simply as “Doe Defendant #1.” Oren Sellstrom, the litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the suit will be amended to name her once her identity has been independently verified. 

Sellstrom said it is atypical that the litigation is now focused on working its way down the chain of command to fill in the details of what took place, rather than the other way around. 

“That’s one of the unusual things behind this case,” he said. “Often in these cases it’s a low-level staffer that has done something and the question in litigation is how far does that reach to the top. Here we have the top government official, Gov. DeSantis, standing up the day after the flights arrive and taking responsibility for the scheme. We know he is responsible. We will find out more in discovery what he was instructing Perla and others to do.” 

The Times reported that Florida state records indicate a charter airline company, Vertol Systems, was paid $1.5 million in two separate payments last month. The paper said litigation records show the company was once represented by Republican US Rep. Matt Gaetz, a key DeSantis ally, and in other cases by Larry Keefe, who is now DeSantis’s public safety czar. 

Questions are being raised not only about potential violations of constitutional rights as alleged in the lawsuit, but also whether laws were violated, including by using the state money to fly migrants from another state. The Times says the Florida budget allocation specified the funds were to “facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.” 

Despite descriptions of the migrants by DeSantis as “unauthorized” or “illegal,” Sellstrom said all of those who arrived on the Vineyard had presented themselves to US immigration officials after crossing the border, were processed, and then released pending further immigration  proceedings, including petitions for asylum. “They’re all authorized by the federal government to be in the United States,” he said. The claim that they were being relocated to “sanctuary” states is also without foundation, as Massachusetts holds no such designation.

“Of course, that comes back to the central point of our lawsuit,” said Sellstrom. “And that is, this was all just a political stunt. It was preying on a very vulnerable population to try to make a political point, denying their humanity in the name of making some political statement. That not only is morally repugnant, it is illegal.” 

MICHAEL JONAS 

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Cannabis death: A 27-year-old West Springfield woman could not breathe and died after inhaling ground cannabis dust in January at a Holyoke marijuana cultivation facility. Donna McMurrey’s family is considering filing a wrongful death lawsuit against her employer.

– The company that owns the facility, Florida-based Trulieve, was fined $35,200 by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration for failing to properly communicate the various hazards of working there. But the company itself said its investigation showed air quality was acceptable and personal protective equipment was available. Read more.

OPINION

Living with COVID: Dr. Shira Doron, an epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, offers advice on how to live with COVID – act as if it’s a bad flu season. Read more.

 

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

A survey done by MassLive about the impact of the impending tax refund finds low-income readers are unhappy that they won’t get much money back.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Boston city councilors now have three different redistricting maps to consider as the process of redrawing lines “shambles,” in Herald reporter Sean Cotter’s words, toward a deadline a month away. 

Author Anita Diamant recounts why Boston is her hometown. (WBUR)

Northampton considers limiting the number of marijuana shops it allows, but there is a lack of data on the impact of existing stores. (MassLive)

Boston city planners are seeking to convert Mattapan into a “10-minute neighborhood,” where major amenities are within a 10-minute walk. (Dorchester Reporter)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Ukrainian forces continue to make gains, including seizing control of areas that Russia declared only days ago it “annexed” following a sham referendum. (Washington Post) 

Former state senator Adam Hinds, who was recently named the new head of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, is floating the idea of turning the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port into a “Camp David for Congress,” a retreat where DC lawmakers of both parties could engage in frank conversation away from the Capitol spotlight. (Boston Globe) 

Massachusetts is on track to get $37 million in supplemental heating assistance money from the federal government to address skyrocketing heating costs. (Eagle-Tribune)

ELECTIONS

Herschell Walker, the football legend running as a Republican for the Senate in Georgia, wants to completely ban abortion, but a woman claiming to be his former girlfriend has stepped forward claiming that he paid for her abortion in 2009. (Daily Beast)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Owners of the long-shuttered Raynham greyhound racing track are hoping to get in on the sports betting action. (Boston Herald) 

EDUCATION

Bids for the Nauset Regional High School in North Eastham are coming in $20 million over budget. (Cape Cod Times)

Clark University graduate student workers go on strike. (Telegram & Gazette)

TRANSPORTATION

Due to a shortage of bus drivers, the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority is reducing service. (Berkshire Eagle)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea have stopped leaking, cutting off one of the largest discharges of the greenhouse gas methane. (NPR)

An oil slick in the Housatonic River draws state investigators to Pittsfield. (Berkshire Eagle)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A Truro man arrested for the killing of his mother died of suicide at the Ash Street jail in New Bedford after authorities were unable to get him admitted immediately to a secure psychiatric care unit at Bridgewater State Hospital, where doctors said he should go. (Boston Globe) 

A judge dismisses a lawsuit brought by former Holyoke Soldiers’ Home employees over working conditions during the COVID pandemic. (MassLive)

MEDIA

Boston Globe columnist Jeneé Osterheldt, the force behind the newspaper’s “A Beautiful Resistance” series on “Black joy, Black lives,” is promoted to senior assistant managing editor for culture, talent, and development. She will now appear on the Globe’s masthead. (Media Nation)

PASSINGS

Jack Thomas, who spent decades at the Boston Globe in various writing positions and who last year wrote a poignant essay in the Sunday Globe Magazine about facing terminal illness, died on Saturday at age 83. (Boston Globe) 

William Welch, who worked in the State House for 48 years including 15 as Senate clerk, died at 72 on his way home from attending a college football game. (Milford Daily News)