Migrants arrive in Sacramento from Texas but don’t know who paid for plane tickets
By Michelle Bandur
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SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — A Northern California advocacy group said it is helping eight migrants from Venezuela who arrived in Sacramento on two separate flights.
Three men, aged 23 and one in his 40s, said they walked barefoot from the Sacramento International Airport to the Catholic Charities administrative offices downtown. They said it was an address on their paperwork, 1107 9th St., the administrative offices for Catholic Charities.
From there, they ended up at the Sacramento Food Bank, and the food bank then called NorCal Resist.
“I picked them up and got them to the grocery store. We got them a hotel. They walked from the Sacramento airport to the Sacramento Food Bank with no shoes,” said Goya Gutierrez, a volunteer with NorCal Resist.
One man who asked not to be identified said they couldn’t choose where they were going. He said the documents said California.
Gutierrez said the paperwork is from the Department of Homeland Security, which scheduled a hearing for later this month for the men to report to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
“ICE doesn’t do that; they don’t just put people on planes because they’re not going to sponsor them,” Gutierrez said. “I have no idea who actually sponsored them.”
The man said they left Venezuela 45 days ago and ended up at the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio, Texas.
He said someone gave them free plane tickets on a flight to Sacramento. The center is run by the city of San Antonio and doesn’t pay for migrants’ travel to other cities.
“They were really confused. Two of them said they wanted to go to Utah and one wanted to go to Manhattan and somehow they ended up in Sacramento,” Gutierrez said.
The men said they are in the United States to find work, not for a vacation. They said it is difficult to find job opportunities in Venezuela and need to support their families.
“They were put on a plane to Sacramento where they don’t know anybody. They don’t have any family here,” Gutierrez said.
The Migrant Resource Center is looking into the men’s claims. The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said his state is busing migrants to Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York.
The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is looking into if they provided the plane tickets.
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