San Antonio sheriff identifies mysterious DeSantis woman who targeted Venezuelan migrants to send to Martha's Vineyard
Sarah K. Burris
October 02, 2022
A private plane took off in Texas with a group of migrants who signed bogus waivers handed to them by a woman only known as "Perla." Now the woman has been found, the New York Times reported Sunday.
According to the report, the woman is Perla Huerta, "a former combat medic and counterintelligence agent, was discharged last month after two decades in the U.S. Army that included several deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to military records.”
Huerta had a Venezuelan migrant who was working with her and who identified her to the police. Waivers signed by the migrants revealed that the English version of the waiver said something entirely different from the Spanish version.
"Several of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard photographed her during the recruitment process in San Antonio, according to Rachel Self, a lawyer representing the migrants," said the report.
Huerta is located in Tampa, Florida, the reports explain.
"The man who said he worked with her to help sign up other migrants agreed to speak on the condition that his name not be used because the events are under investigation. He said he first met Ms. Huerta on Sept. 10 outside the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio," the Times revealed.
Huerta was accused of seeking to target Venezuelan migrants, but he felt "betrayed" because she never said she was working on behalf of the Florida government.
“I was also lied to,” he told the Times. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All she said was that “she wanted to help people head up north.”
Venezuelans have been coming to the United States fleeing socialism, something Republicans claim they're against.
"The effort to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard appeared to have been far less organized than the more sweeping program created by Mr. Abbott in Texas that already had bused more than 11,000 migrants from the state to three northern, Democratic-run cities — Washington, New York and Chicago," said the report.
According to DeSantis, the migrants coming into Florida are only doing so by "onesies-twosies," not in large numbers. So, he had to go into Texas to take migrants there and deport them. No one told the Texas governor it was happening and the Republican Massachusetts governor wasn't informed they were coming either.
Public records show that Vertol Systems was the charter airline company that was paid $615,000 on Sept. 8 and $950,000 less than two weeks later for what was identified as "project 1," and "projects two and three." The funds came from $12 million in funding for the Department of Transportation “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.” None of the people flown to Martha's Vinyard were "unauthorized aliens from this state."
rawstory.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perla Huerta: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
By Tom Cleary
Updated Oct 2, 2022 at 8:14pm
GettyPerla Huerta is being investigated for her role in recruiting migrants from San Antonio, pictured here, to be transported to Martha's Vineyard.
Perla Huerta is a former Army counterintelligence officer being investigated in connection to Venezuelan migrants solicited to travel from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in a September 2022 operation organized by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Huerta was identified by The New York Times as the woman named “Perla” who aslyum seekers said approached them in Texas and convinced them to take the trip to Massachusetts. The program, funded through $12 million in state funds set aside by the state to transport migrants out of Florida, led to 48 people being flown to the tourist destination, The Times reported.
The migrants were flown to Martha’s Vineyard on a charter plane owned by an airline company with ties to DeSantis, the newspaper reported. The Times wrote on October 2, 2022, “And, in the middle of it all, a woman with a background in military counterintelligence who investigators believe was sent to Texas from Tampa in order to fill the planes.”
The Times wrote, “Until now, little has been known about the woman whom migrants said identified herself only by her first name, ‘Perla,’ when she solicited them to join the flights. A person briefed on the San Antonio Sheriff’s office investigation into the matter told The New York Times that the person being looked at in connection with the operation is a woman named Perla Huerta.”
Here’s what you need to know about Perla Huerta:
1. Perla Huerta Recruited Migrants With Offers of a Free Flight to Massachusetts, Where They Could Get Jobs & Resources, The Times ReportsBexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters, “Our understanding is that a Venezuelan migrant was paid what we would call a ‘birddog fee’ to recruit approximately 50 migrants from the area around a migrants resource center on San Pedro here in San Antonio.”
Salazar said the migrants were “lured under false pretenses.” Salazar said they migrants were flown to Florida and then on to Massachusetts. He said the migrants were “promised work” and the “solution to several of their problems.”
The Times reported that Huerta was identified through a Venezuelan migrant who had been working with her. Another migrant also confirmed her identity through a photo shown to them by The Times. Heavy was not able to reach Huerta for comment.
The newspaper wrote, “Several of the migrants on Martha’s Vineyard photographed her during the recruitment process in San Antonio, according to Rachel Self, a lawyer representing the migrants. Lawyers working with them were able to match those photos with others online and in social media belonging to a woman named Perla Huerta.”
The Washington Post wrote, “A smiling blond-haired woman in a cowboy hat approached. Her name was Perla, she said. And she could fix all their troubles. It was a pitch Perla had been making to other newly homeless migrants huddled on San Antonio’s streets. She drove a rented white SUV and promised food, jobs and transportation.”
2. Huerta Was Also a Combat Medic & Served in Iraq & Afghanistan Before Leaving the U.S. Army in 2022, the Newspaper ReportedAccording to The Times, Huerta worked in counterintelligence in the U.S. Army and was also a combat medic in the military. She “was discharged last month after two decades in the U.S. Army” and served deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, military records obtained by The Times show.
Huerta is 43, according to public records viewed by Heavy. Little other information about Huerta has been found. She has not commented publicly about the accusations against her. DeSantis and others have also not spoken about her role.
The mysterious blonde woman driving a white truck named “Perla” was at the center of many reports about the operation to move migrants from Texas to Massachusetts in the days after it happened. Some on social media falsely speculated the woman was DeSantis’ spokesperson Christina Pushaw.
Emmanuel, a 27-year-old migrant from Venezuela, told San Antonio Report that “Perla” paid him $200 to recruit people for the flight. “Perla informed me that in those sanctuary states, the state has the benefits to help migrants. I’ve just been the mediator because I like to help people,” he told the non-profit news organization.
The news site wrote, “Perla said that she had no involvement in organizing the flights and that she just wanted to help people and sign them up to board the flight, according to Emmanuel. When Perla first offered to pay Emmanuel for the migrants’ contact information, he was hesitant. He said Perla said she got the money from an ‘anonymous benefactor’ and that the flight was paid for by that person.”
3. ‘Perla’ Was Named in a Lawsuit Filed by a Group of Migrants“Perla” is named in a lawsuit filed by a group of migrants who were transported from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, according to court documents. Her full name is not included in the court filing. The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts federal court on September 20.
The attorneys representing the migrants named “Perla” as “Defendant Doe #1.” The lawyers wrote in the filing that she is “an as-yet unnamed individual who targeted many of the putative class members in San Antonio, Texas, to induce them onto flights to Martha’s Vineyard. Defendant Doe #1 told plaintiffs her name was ‘Perla.’ The plaintiffs will amend the complaint when they ascertain her real name.”
One of the migrants told her lawyers her family “encountered” the woman “who identified herself as ‘Perla’ who was asking people outside the shelter if the needed help.” The migrant said “Perla” gave her phone number to her and the migrant later called her. According to court documents, Huerta asked the woman for her and her family’s immigration notices and then took them to a hotel, where they stayed for five days.
The migrant said Huerta told her “if the family got on the flight she arranged,” they “would be provided with permanent housing, work, educational resources for her son and help changing her address for immigrant proceedings,” according to court documents. Huerta then arranged a shuttle to take the family to a charter flight, telling them they would go to a “sanctuary state,” according to court documents.
The woman identified as Huerta also approached “several dozen people” in San Antonio and told them she had “helped many Venezuelans before,” according to court documents. She said she could get them a plane and a hotel. The migrants told their attorneys “Defendant Doe #1” gave them a $10 McDonald’s gift card in exchange for signing a document that was not fully translated into Spanish.
4. Huerta, Who Is Divorced, Lives in Tampa, & Has Family in the San Antonio Area, Where She Lived Before Joining the ArmyHuerta lives in Tampa, Florida, according to The Times and public records. She has been divorced since 2017 and has children, according to public records. She previously lived in Niceville, Florida, where she and her husband divorced, court records show.
Huerta has ties to San Antonio. She lived there for several years before joining the Army and still has family in the region, according to public records viewed by Heavy. Huerta’s family could not be reached by Heavy for comment.
It was not immediately clear if Huerta has hired an attorney who could comment on her behalf. Huerta’s social media pages, including her Facebook page, which was under her maiden name, appear to have been deleted or made private. Heavy was not able to locate a photo of her.
5. The Bexar County Sheriff Said ‘We Want to Know What Was Promised to the Migrants
Play
'Lured under false pretenses' | Bexar County sheriff investigating after migrants flown from San AntSheriff Javier Salazar says it "infuriates" him that the migrants were "exploited and hoodwinked into making this trip."2022-09-20T00:35:04Z
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar launched an investigation into the transportation of the migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, the sheriff’s office announced on Facebook on September 19.
Salazar told reporters, “It is way too early for me to start naming any suspects. We do have the names of some suspects involved that we believe are persons of interest in this case at this point. But I won’t be parting with those names, I think to be fair. Suffice it to say we will be opening up a case.”
The sheriff said investigators want to figure out what the migrants went through when they were in Bexar County. “We want to know what was promised to them. What if anything did they sign? Did they even understand the document that was put in front of them if they signed something? Or was this strictly a predatory measure?”
Salazar continued, “Somebody coming and preying upon people who are here minding their own business and are here legally, not bothering a soul, but somebody saw fit to come from another state, hunt them down, prey upon them and then take advantage of their desperate situation, just for the sake of political theater, just for the sake of making some sort of a statement. And putting people’s lives in danger. I believe people need to be held accountable for it to the extent possible.”
https://heavy.com/news/perla-huerta/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DeSantis had the refugees from San Antonio dropped off on the tarmac at Martha's Vineyard airport. They hiked the three and a half miles into Edgartown. They'd never heard of Martha's Vineyard and had no idea they'd been stranded on an island. MV has a permanent population of 15,000 people living in six towns.
C BS Boston reported that the group of migrants wandered about three and a half miles from the airport to Edgartown, where Barbara Rush, of St. Andrews Church, said "Martha's Vineyard Community Services had 50 people sort of literally walk up to their front door."
CBS News immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez notes that, unlike the other cities Republican governors have chosen as destinations for migrants, Martha's Vineyard is not an urban, metropolitan area with a robust social services infrastructure: There are no large refugee or migrant services organizations on the island. There's no Justice Department immigration court where the migrants can attend asylum hearings. There's no ICE field office where migrants can check in. As it hasn't been a top destination for recent arrivals, the flights will also raise questions about whether all the migrants transported there on Wednesday knew where they were going.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-marthas-vineyard-desantis-flights-illegal-immigrants-sanctuary-destinations/
Ragini Shah, a clinical professor of law at Suffolk University in Boston, told AFP that "none of the six towns on Martha’s Vineyard are sanctuary cities."
https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.32JU8FC-1
There are no sanctuary cities on Martha's Vineyard but Obama does have a house there. The Trumpscum would've really liked the dirty brown people to have been pushed out of the plane over Obama's house. |
|
