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After reading about how our governor sent immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, I was thinking that maybe the governors and mayors of northern states and cities should say to themselves, “You know, winter is coming to our states and cities and it will be getting cold, so maybe we should gather up our homeless population and send them to a warm climate for the winter season.” Of course, that would be Florida. I think The Villages and Naples would be good places to send them.

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Authorities in Texas have opened a criminal investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' flight last week that took roughly 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, said in a news release Monday that his office is investigating whether the migrants were victims of crimes:

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office has opened an investigation into the migrants that were lured from the Migrant Resource Center, located in Bexar County, TX, and flown to Florida, where they were ultimately left to fend for themselves in Martha's Vineyard, MA.

Additionally, we are working with private attorneys who are representing the victims, as well as advocacy organizations regarding this incident. We are also preparing to work with any federal agencies that have concurrent jurisdiction, should the need arise.

Salazar held a Facebook Live news conference over the Bexar County Sheriff's Office page, answering reporters' questions.

"What we understand is a Venezuelan migrant was paid a bird-dog fee to recruit 50 migrants who were then were lured — and I will use the word "lured" under false pretenses — to staying in a hotel for a few days, then taken to an airplane where they were flown to Florida and then Martha's Vineyard under false pretenses of being offered jobs," says Salazar. "For what we can gather, a little more than a photo op, a video op, and then they were left there."

The sheriff continued to explain his anger over the incident and the false promises that brought the migrants onto the plane.

"What infuriates me the most is what we have is 48 people here legally — they have every right to be here and they were preyed upon. Lured with promises of a better life and with the knowledge they would cling anything that was offered for a better life and were exploited and hoodwinked to make the trip to Florida for what I believe was political posturing."

"When you're playing with human lives, people that have every right to be here, that does tend to bother me quite a bit. We are absolutely opening an investigation into this."

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The 15 Cuban refugees whose makeshift boat chanced to land on Florida’s largest nude beach on Labor Day would have been convenient “unauthorized aliens” for Gov. Ron DeSantis to place aboard the two charter jets he had fly into into Martha’s Vineyard last week.

Had some of those 15 been aboard, DeSantis likely could have filled both of the 30-seat Fairchild Dornier 328 jets from among the 100 other Cuban refugees who arrived over Labor Day weekend. And if DeSantis wanted to go through with his threat to fly and bus more “unauthorized aliens” into “sanctuary states,” he could recruit from among the 1,300 who have arrived directly from Cuba to his state since last October. That number is up more than 600 percent over last year.

But Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez triggered a political furor back in August when she suggested on a radio program that Florida might bus newly arrived Cuban refugees from Florida to President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.

So, rather than displease the formidable Cuban American community in Florida, DeSantis went to the trouble and expense of hiring a contractor to hustle migrants into boarding his charter planes in San Antonio, Texas. And, lest the passengers include some of the record 176,000 Cubans who have arrived at the southern border by land over the past year, the contractor appears to have targeted only Venezuelans and a few Colombians.

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A dramatic shift at the border as migrants converge on a remote corner of South Texas

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These folks aren't actually illegal.

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Rachel Self says if immigration officials determine the 49 migrants were victimized [were lied to about what was going on], they could receive justice in the form of something called a U visa.

Rachel Self: And in order to qualify for a U visa, you need two things. You need to have a certification from a law enforcement official that you were a victim of a crime. And you then need to show that you suffered as a result of the crime.

So, she flew to Texas with a stack of U visa certifications for Sheriff Javier Salazar to sign. After careful review, he did.

Sharyn Alfonsi: So if the intention of this stunt was to look tough on migrants, what did it actually do?

Rachel Self: Ironically, it provided them a completely independent available path to legalize their status here.