The widely criticized political maneuver appeared to operate outside the boundaries of the $12 million program Florida lawmakers authorized in their budget in June to “facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”Vertol Systems, the Oregon-based charter airline company, flew the group of Venezuelans, some of whom said they were lured onto the flights with promises of work and housing, to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the Massachusetts coast known as a politically liberal-leaning community.Florida officials have not offered an official explanation for the stop in Crestview, which has raised speculation about whether it was intended to look like the mission had a plausible connection with the state, as the rules of the program had laid out.“Our view is you have to deal with it at the source.”The relocation program was launched in July, when Rebekah Davis, the Florida Department of Transportation’s general counsel, issued a request for quotes from interested transportation companies.Vertol’s chief executive, James Montgomerie, gave Davis quotes in an email for possible charter flights on a King Air 350 turboprop from Crestview to Boston (at a cost of $35,000) and Crestview to Los Angeles (at a cost of $60,000) for between four and eight people, an indication that the state was interested in these potential destinations for migrant flights.State Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat from South Florida, who has filed a lawsuit as a private citizen seeking injunctive relief, alleges that the program violates state law, in part because the migrants were not being relocated from Florida."