My first thought upon learning that Florida governor Ron DeSantis was taking credit for flying 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts is that he had committed a crime. At that point, I didn’t know many details and I’m still not conversant in all the possible legal issues involved. But if these people were in the country illegally, then moving them across state lines would seem to be a federal crime.
Obviously, there are circumstances where movement is authorized, but I assume that it must be done in coordination with the responsible federal agencies. In this case, the migrants were enticed onto planes with fraudulent promises of housing and work, which means it wasn’t simply an effort to find them shelter in some other state. Massachusetts wasn’t even notified that they were coming. DeSantis was effectively acting like a coyote–someone paid to assist migrants across the border and into the interior of the United States, where they’ll then be forced to fend for themselves. Also, these migrants were in Texas, so why is the Florida governor involved at all?
As people have started to look further into this, they’re identifying specific state and federal statutes that may have been violated.
Was this legal under federal law? A variety of Democrats and legal experts yesterday questioned whether the DeSantis administration committed human trafficking. In an especially odd moment yesterday, one of the governor’s own spokespersons published a tweet comparing the DeSantis administration with criminal cartels. Federal law in this area, however, is quite complex and will need additional scrutiny.
Was this legal under state law? According to Florida’s relevant budget language, DeSantis’ administration is only allowed to “transport unauthorized aliens“ from Florida, not other states. If the migrants were in Texas, as appears to be the case, this would appear to be a meaningful problem for the Republican.
I suppose the point is to demonstrate that there’s pain and inconvenience involved in having to handle a large influx of uninvited guests. Let Massachusetts feel what it’s like to be a southern border state and maybe they’ll take “the crisis” there more seriously. Additionally, DeSantis is looking to boost his profile and conservative credentials in anticipation of a run for president in 2023 and 2024. In the latter sense, it’s correctly being called “a sadistic stunt,” since actually human beings in need were cruelly treated as props in the service of a politician’s ambition.
If this stunt were repeated enough it might actually get its point across. The people of Martha’s Vineyard were easily capable of graciously handling a one-time influx of 50 people, but how would they react to 50 people a day in perpetuity?
But that’s not an option here as, in addition to being a potentially illegal stunt, it was a very expensive one.
Records show that the [Florida] state DOT paid $615,000 to Vertol Systems Company, Inc., an aviation company based in Oregon and operating in Destin, Florida, on Sept. 8 for the state’s “relocation program of unauthorized aliens.” The payment was made nearly a week before the planes arrived at Martha’s Vineyard.
As noted above, the relocation program authorizes removal of people from Florida. It says nothing about spending taxpayer dollars to remove people from Texas. In total, $12 million is allocated for this program in the state budget, which means DeSantis might be able to repeat this stunt 10 more times before he’s out of money. Since he can’t replicate the sustained pressure of constant migrants at the border, he’s not going to be able to turn Martha’s Vineyard into a migrant-intolerant community.
Instead, the enthusiastic and organized welcome the migrants received in Massachusetts is being used to make DeSantis look like a fool. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas understands the problem.
But for cost considerations alone, none of that is actually going to happen.
Still, it seems to me that the Biden administration should treat this as a crime if for no other reason than to protect other people from becoming innocent victims of Republican fraud.
Cruel political stunt: yes. Putting the morality aside, how would the politics of prosecuting DeSantis and others for this stunt play? I am much less worried about Trump himself making a political comeback in 2023 and 2024, but DeSantis is concerning. Can Democrats hurt him now? Would that actually work from an electoral perspective or would “DeSantis the patriot martyr” become the narrative?
I suspect his habit of hurting actual people with whom voters can at least partly sympathize is a major weakness of his. Can this be exploited?
It’s DeSantis’ “golden escalator” moment. Expect his popularity with fascists to increase.
What he and Abbott are doing definitely plays to their base. That said, DeSantis possibly shot himself in the foot with this stunt. There is the legality of what he’s done surely is questionable at best. Beyond that, the optics look bad to the Venezuelan diaspora in Miami/Dade County area. Venezuelans may not be a huge voting bloc in Florida, but the numbers are not insignificant, and enough of them have lived memory of life under Chavez and Maduro, Forcible relocation is something that could easily be tarred as something the likes of a communist dictator like Maduro might try.
The political argument for prosecuting DeSantis is the same as the argument for prosecuting Trump: letting them get away with it just increases their power. Conversely, forcing them to face consequences for their actions reduces their power. Part of their appeal is that “they can get away it”.
One reason I am heartened to see that a Bexar County Sheriff is investigating the DeSantis case. There should be plenty of info to work with. Wouldn’t mind seeing the Feds involved in this one. Politicians shouldn’t be allowed to get away with human trafficking for some cheap political stunt.
It could be explicitly illegal and, if so, as I suspect, he should be prosecuted, end of story. See what DOJ says. But this sad occurrence also points out our problem with immigration writ large and in that DeSantis has a winner — maybe. We need a rational immigration policy now not five years from now but the Dems seem to worry about a gazillion other things. And they are about to be thrown out to the curb for a kind of dereliction of responsibility for this and, oh, a few other things. .