BOSTON — An immigrant plane was rumored to come to Nantucket this week in a similar fashion to last month’s incident on Martha’s Vineyard, but apparently it didn’t happen at all.
Nantucket police reported Monday that they had spoken directly to the charter company, which confirmed Tuesday’s scheduled flight to Massachusetts “will carry executives from an investment firm.”
“We believe this information is credible,” police said in a statement.
The flight update follows an alert from Nantucket police over the weekend that the flight “has many similarities to the flight and events that took place on Martha’s Vineyard last month” — the then-Florida governor. Ron DeSantis sent dozens of immigrants from Texas to Bay State Island.
On Friday, the Nantucket Police Central Dispatch received a call from Nantucket Memorial Airport Operations about a reported flight scheduled to land on Tuesday.
“The purpose of the call is to notify the Nantucket Police Department that the reported scheduled flight bears many similarities to the flight and incident that occurred on Martha’s Vineyard,” Nantucket Police said in a previous alert.
“If a plane with immigrants arrives, the Nantucket Police Department and many other town departments have detailed plans to deal with the situation,” police said.
Last month, 49 Venezuelan migrants flew from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on DeSantis’ orders, surprising the island community.
After local residents and groups stepped up to help the migrants, they were moved to Joint Base Cape Cod, a military base better able to meet their housing, food and basic needs. The state’s temporary shelter operation ended over the weekend as transitional housing opportunities were finalized.
The immigrants were in a San Antonio shelter when they were contacted and offered housing, job search help and a plane to Boston. They were misled to board and cross state lines under false pretenses, according to officials and advocates.
DeSantis said Florida paid for the flight to Martha’s Vineyard as part of an effort “to transport illegal immigrants to shelter destinations.”
The Texas Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into how immigrants were allegedly tricked into boarding planes, and civil rights lawyers have filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis.
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