Treasury Probes DeSantis Use of Covid Funds for Migrant Flights

The treasury department has told members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation that it is investigating whether Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, improperly used federal Covid-relief funds to fly Venezuelan asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas last month.In a letter to the members of Congress, a deputy inspector general at Treasury, Richard Delmar, said the department would be looking into whether Florida improperly used money from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, or SLFRF, to transport the migrants. The $350 billion initiative was part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, passed in 2021 to help the country recover from the Covid pandemic. “We will review the allowability of use of SLFRF funds related to immigration generally, and will specifically confirm whether interest earned on SLFRF funds was utilized by Florida related to immigration activities, and if so, what conditions and limitation apply to such use,” Mr. Delmar told the members of Congress.It wasn’t immediately clear why the department was singling out Florida for its use of the funds, given that it has offered state and local governments wide latitude on how they spend the money. Elsewhere, it has been used for everything from “environmental justice” initiatives and prisons to “welcome services” and cash handouts to immigrants regardless of their legal status.Mr. DeSantis did not use the Covid-relief money directly for the flights, but the state legislature authorized that $12 million in interest earned from those funds be earmarked to pay for the transport of “unauthorized aliens from the state.” The state ended up paying a Florida air charter company $1.56 million for the flights.According to the treasury department, the money was intended to be spent to support families and businesses struggling because of the pandemic, maintain public services, and to “build a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity.”An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, however, shows that state and local governments around the country used the money for a host of projects unrelated to the pandemic, including immigrant support services.Washington State, for example, allocated $340 million to provide financial support for immigrants, and Illinois spent part of its proceeds on cash benefits to immigrants — regardless of whether they were in the country legally — and immigration “welcome services.”The center says that guidance from the treasury department “explicitly encourages states and localities to help people most affected by the pandemic and to address racial and economic inequities that predate, but worsened in, the pandemic.”The center says 16 states spent a combined $2.1 billion on environmental initiatives, and 26 states invested $12 billion of their proceeds in housing projects. Alabama spent $400 million of its allocation on two new prisons, and Florida devoted $2 billion of its money to highway construction. California spent $530 million on mental and substance abuse services, and another $1.8 billion to create savings accounts for every child born in that state to use for whatever purpose they want when they turn 18.Since the two flights full of migrants touched down at Martha’s Vineyard in September, Mr. DeSantis has been under fire from Massachusetts’s predominantly Democratic members of Congress. The flights were pilloried as a “political stunt” and several civil lawsuits have been filed. A Texas sheriff is also said to be investigating the flights, along with a U.S. attorney in Boston.On Twitter, Senator Markey of Massachusetts lauded Treasury officials for acting quickly to audit and investigate Mr. DeSantis’s “use of Covid relief funds to cruelly transport” the migrants. According to Politico, Mr. Markey asked the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, to investigate the flights. Mr. DeSantis’s office has said all the migrants were flown to Massachusetts willingly.Details of the letter were first reported by GBH News in Boston.

Treasury Probes DeSantis Use of Covid Funds for Migrant Flights

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