DeSantis administration agrees to release Martha's Vineyard records by December

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration this week pushed back against a lawsuit seeking the immediate release of all records related to the flights of migrants from Texas to Massachusetts but agreed to provide them no later than Dec. 1.

Lawyers for the Republican governor filed a nine-page response late Tuesday to a demand from the open government group Florida Center for Government Accountability for records, including phone and text logs from DeSantis’ chief of staff, James Uthmeier, as well as any communication between Florida and Texas officials.

Florida Center for Government Accountability filed a lawsuit earlier this month after the DeSantis administration did not hand over records the group was seeking about two charter flights in September that transported nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants to the resort island in Massachusetts. A circuit judge in Leon County gave the governor’s office until this week to respond.

DeSantis’ push to relocate migrants — which the governor said was done to draw attention to the Biden administration’s immigration policies — was roundly condemned by Democrats who accused him of human trafficking and exploiting vulnerable migrants for political gain.

Florida is using interest earned off the billions in Covid-19 relief aid provided by Congress to pay to relocate migrants from Florida to other states.

In its response, the DeSantis administration said it has received more than 90 public records requests related to the flights and has a backlog of 245 overall requests that it is currently processing.

“[Florida Center for Government Accountability] has no right to leap ahead of other requesters to have its requests satisfied at breakneck speed just because it may have the resources and wherewithal to engage in litigation,” the administration’s assistant general counsel Andrew King wrote.

Florida’s Constitution requires state and local government agencies to release official records but there is not a specific timeline for when such entities must produce the documents. The center, in its lawsuit, contended that none of the records it was asking for were exempt from disclosure and called the delay in turning them over “unjustified” and an “unlawful delay.”

The governor’s office notes it has handed over some records related to the flights, including a large batch late last Friday that top officials in the administration, including Uthmeier and DeSantis’ public safety czar Larry Keefe, were involved in the migrant relocation program.

Michael Barfield, director of public access with the Florida Center for Government Accountability, fired back Wednesday and said the fact that others have not filed a lawsuit does not excuse a delay to produce records.

“Everyone in the line has been complaining loudly about the delays but it has fallen on deaf ears,” Barfield wrote in an email. “The center decided to stop complaining and ask a judge to intervene.”

The response from DeSantis’ attorneys maintains that looking for records can be “time intensive,” especially when records are being sought from top aides to the governor. The filing also notes the initial request came right before Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida.

“Many requesters seek records from the governor’s senior staff, and they have primary responsibilities that include time-sensitive tasks on matters of great importance to the state,” the lawyers wrote. “Therefore they cannot drop everything they are doing to dedicate uninterrupted hours or days to search for responsive records.”

Barfield responded that the hurricane was not a legitimate excuse because the records were not being sought from the state’s emergency management staff. He added that “an agency cannot avoid obligations imposed by the Florida Constitution by claiming it doesn’t have adequate staff. Florida has a record budget surplus and it’s no excuse that the (governor’s office) failed to budget and plan for a constitutional responsibility.”

The flights have sparked several legal challenges, including one from state Sen. Jason Pizzo that contends the $12 million set aside by the Legislature violates state laws regarding the budget. Pizzo’s lawsuit also maintains that the DeSantis administration did not follow guidelines for the relocation program laid out by state legislators. That lawsuit is scheduled to go before a circuit court judge in November.

Days after the flights, a civil rights law firm from Boston filed a federal class action lawsuit that accused the governor of orchestrating a “premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme” that misled the group of mostly Venezuelan migrants who were on the two flights.