Whatever happened to the 49 migrants who were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022? Pawns in an elaborate scheme to elevate the anti-immigrant bonafides of the ambitious governor, it seemed as if they had landed among the forgotten souls sidelined by the media’s short memory. But last month, in what may go down as one of the greatest ironies of political theater in recent memory, the US government quietly gave eight of them special legal protection.

Florida lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a measure that would not only expand Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ability to relocate migrants anywhere in the country but would allow his administration to hand out millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to companies to carry out the secretive program without disclosing details to the public.

In the face of several lawsuits challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ covert operation to relocate migrants from the Texas border to Massachusetts, the governor’s office now wants lawmakers to revise the law to remove potentially unconstitutional provisions and give the governor more authority to use Florida taxpayer funds to transport migrants around the country.

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue has some questions to answer about his agency’s handling of the covert operation Florida taxpayers financed to relocate migrants from the southern border in Texas, but the Senate committee charged with overseeing his budget ran out of time Wednesday.

A Leon County Circuit Court judge on Friday refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Ron DeSantis brought by a North Miami Beach state senator who has accused Florida’s governor of illegally using taxpayer funds to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last September.

Weeks before the state signed a contract with a Destin-based aviation company to ship migrants from San Antonio to Democratic-leaning states at Florida taxpayer expense, executives with the politically connected firm were already in Texas with Florida officials planning the secret mission, text messages released by the governor’s office late Monday show.

Documents released by the aviation company that helped manage Florida’s $12 million migrant relocation program shed new light on behind-the-scenes dealings as the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, working with the politically connected vendor, wriggled around a requirement that Florida use the money to export Florida migrants — not those living in some other state.

Top aides to Gov. Ron DeSantis played key roles in planning and executing Florida’s controversial migrant flight program, records obtained by the Miami Herald showed.

Meeting for the first time since Gov. Ron DeSantis initiated his controversial Martha’s Vineyard migrant flights, Florida lawmakers shut down questions Wednesday about whether his agency violated state law when it used money earmarked for relocating migrants out of Florida to relocate them out of Texas instead.

Documents obtained by the Miami Herald showed how the state agency charged with managing the controversial migrant relocation program may have violated the law that authorized the mission.