In the case of the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Florida state records show that an airline charter company, Vertol Systems, was paid $615,000 on Sept. 8 and $950,000 less than two weeks later. The first payment was for “project 1” and the second payment for “projects two and three.” So far, Florida officials have acknowledged only the initial flights and have not spoken of plans for others.
The money to fly migrants came from a special $12 million appropriation in the state’s last budget, a brief item that gave funds to the state’s Department of Transportation to create a program “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”
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Beth Folcarelli, the chief executive at the center, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, said she was in her office talking to a senior staff member at about 3:45 p.m. when outside the window they spotted a group of people walking in the nonprofit’s direction.
“The people approaching looked inquisitive, and like they were looking for help,” she recalled. She stepped out to ask what they needed.
All she understood were the words “Venezuela” and “refugees,” so she rushed inside for help from a manager named Geany Rolanti, who speaks Spanish.
Eventually, 48 people from the flights, including several children, had gathered in the nonprofit’s parking lot.
The aid group workers were stumped: Who are you? How did you get here?
A migrant told them that they had been promised that the community service organization would help them with housing and a job.
Soon, the migrants were receiving items from a community thrift shop, Chicken Alley: trousers, T-shirts, shoes. Stores in the area donated underwear. An island hotline was inundated with calls from people who wished to help. Donations and volunteers poured into the church where the migrants spent two nights sleeping on cots.
Staff members at the community center in Martha’s Vineyard arranged for a migrant named Pablo to call home to Venezuela, Ms. Rolanti said. He appeared broken.
“My love, we were tricked,” he told his wife, weeping uncontrollably. “This woman lied to us. She lied.”
