2nd flight transporting migrants arrives unexpectedly in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Another plane with migrants onboard arrived at a Sacramento airport on Monday, days after a flight carrying South American migrants landed in the state capital, officials said.

Florida authorities appear to have been involved in sending the migrants to California based on documents carried by the travelers on both flights, State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said to KTVU.

State officials confirmed to KCRA there were about 20 migrants on board, and the Department of Justice has made contact with them. 

The second flight arrived at Sacramento Executive Airport Monday afternoon from El Paso, Texas. 

The plane arrived days after 16 migrants from Colombia and Venezuela were dropped off outside a Sacramento church, under false promises of finding work. They had apparently been flown from New Mexico to California.

Bonta said the groups' transportation to California was orchestrated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

"While this is still under investigation, we can confirm these individuals were in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida," Bonta said in a statement late Saturday.

The documents said the migrants were transported through a program run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management and carried out by contractor Vertol Systems Co., said Tara Gallegos, a spokesperson for Bonta. 

They entered the U.S. through Texas. 

They were transported to New Mexico and then flown by a charter plane to California’s capital, where they were then dropped off in front of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, California officials said.

They were approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas, by people who offered them jobs and travel assistance, said Eddie Carmona of PICO California, a faith-based group helping the migrants. They did not know they were being taken to Sacramento and arrived with few belongings, he said.