Ron DeSantis's Latest Migrant Stunt Was Unfathomably Cruel, Potentially Illegal, And An Utter Failure
The details of this little stunt are now emerging, and they are damning.
by Ben Cohen
In what has to be one of the most grotesque, unfathomably cruel acts of malice in the GOP’s quest to “own the libs”, Governor Ron DeSantis may have also screwed his own party, and broken the law.
DeSantis sent roughly 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha's Vineyard last week in an effort to expose supposed liberal hypocrisy on immigration. As part of an orchestrated strategy by Republican governors around the country, the Florida governor believed it would be a good way to humiliate his political opponents. But the little Eichmann decided to go the extra mile and humiliate the families fleeing poverty and violence as well.
DeSantis, it seems, was part of a highly organized plot to mislead the migrant families by providing false documents in order to lure them onto the plane to Martha’s Vineyard. The details of this little stunt are now emerging, and they are damning.
A sick ploy
Rachel Self, a Boston immigration attorney assisting with the migrants’ cases spoke to reporters about what had transpired. Her statement to the press is shocking to say the least:
Popular Information’s Judd Legum obtained a copy of the brochure handed out to the migrants boarding the plane and spells out why this was potentially a crime:
The documents suggest that the flights were not just a callous political stunt but potentially a crime….
It was provided to Popular Information by Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a Boston-based legal organization that represents 30 of the migrants. The brochure says that migrants who arrive in Massachusetts will be eligible for numerous benefits, including "8 months cash assistance," "assistance with housing," "food," "clothing," "transportation to job interviews," "job training," "job placement," "registering children for school," "assistance applying for Social Security cards," and many other benefits.
None of this, however, is true.
The legal technicalities are important here. The brochure appears to be deliberately inaccurate, and thus evidence DeSantis deliberately misled the migrants by providing fake documents. Continues Legum:
Matt Cameron, a Boston-based immigration attorney, explained that the benefits described in the brochure are resettlement benefits available to refugees who have been referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and authorized to live in the United States. These benefits are not available in Massachusetts to the migrants who boarded the flights, who are still in the process of seeking asylum.
The migrants who boarded the planes "absolutely do not have access to cash, housing, and other resettlement benefits which are provided through both federal funds and partnerships with faith-based [organizations]," Cameron said.
The brochure, which is crudely designed to resemble a government document, does not explain that these benefits described are only available to specially designated refugees.
Crimes were almost certainly committed
The potential crimes are so serious that State Representative for Massachusetts, Dylan Fernandes, has requested a federal human trafficking probe:
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced a full blown criminal investigation stating that he believes multiple laws have been broken. Reported CNN:
Javier Salazar, a Democrat, told reporters at a Monday news conference that his understanding was that on Wednesday a Venezuelan migrant was paid a "bird dog fee" to recruit 50 migrants from a resource center in San Antonio.
The sheriff said he believes laws were not only broken in Bexar County in transporting nearly 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard but that parallel laws were also broken on the federal side.
Salazar believes that the seriousness of the crimes means federal government is going to have to get involved.
"Absolutely parts of this case are going to have to go federal, and there's going to have to be some coordination that goes along with that," he told reporters. "So absolutely, I would welcome the White House or anybody else from the federal side to give us a call and help us out with whatever they can".
DeSantis’s office responded to the allegations quickly and scheduled a press conference where Taryn Fenske, communications director for the governor, confirmed the existence of the brochures, but refuted Legum’s claims that they were misleading. The main talking point they have been circulating to right wing media outlets is that “the brochure does not say migrants immediately have access to the benefits, and the details come directly from the state government website.”
DeSantis might believe this Orwellian subterfuge will exonerate his office, but as Legum wrote today, Fenske is lying:
The migrants targeted by DeSantis will never be eligible to receive many of the benefits listed in the brochure. If the migrants are granted asylum, a process that can take several years, they could become eligible for limited financial and medical benefits. But migrants that are granted asylum could also receive those benefits in Florida or Texas.
Given the publicly available evidence and obvious inconsistencies in DeSantis’s version of events, it isn’t hard to imagine it gaining the attention of the Department of Justice. The fact is that DeSantis almost certainly broke several laws. As Jeff Weaver notes in the Guardian:
Title 5, section 20 of the Texas penal code defines the crime of unlawful restraint. Under the statute, a person is restrained if their movement is restricted without their consent by, among other means, moving the person from one place to another. Restraint is without consent “if it is accompanied … by deception”. Under the statute, the violation is a class A misdemeanor, unless the person restrained is younger than 17, in which case it is a felony. According to reporting, there were children among those criminally transported to Martha’s Vineyard.
DeSantis may welcome a legal fight knowing it would play well with the MAGA crowd he is desperately coveting. But he should not underestimate the DoJ’s commitment to holding those in power to account — particularly as the investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged theft of classified documents heats up. If the Texas investigation yields tangible results, DeSantis should start to worry.
Politically stupid
Regardless of where any investigation goes, the political stunt appears to be backfiring quite badly with everyone outside of the MAGA universe.
Unfortunately for DeSantis, he hadn’t banked on the godless, abortion loving liberals of Martha’s Vineyard embracing the migrants with open arms by providing housing, food and legal assistance. Given the GOP is also heavily courting the Latino vote, particularly in Florida, the spectacle of humiliating Latinos legally coming into the country could have serious political consequences for DeSantis in his home state.
While Fox News hosts and the MAGA crowd are busy gloating over the grim spectacle, the rest of the country is rightly horrified. DeSantis and other Republican governors like Greg Abbott of Texas believe using desperate human beings as political props will help their prospects in 2024. But just as the GOP’s anti abortion victory has led to severe political blowback just in time for the midterms, this latest ruse will likely cost them dearly.
DeSantis in particular is being heralded as Trump obvious successor, so he needs to show the Republican base that he is a smarter, crueler version of the former president. DeSantis certainly grows stronger with the GOP base every time he “owns the libs”, but so do his liabilities on the national stage. President Biden handily defeated Trump in 2020 because Americans had had enough of the chaos and nastiness. If DeSantis wants to up the ante in 2024, he will face the same fate as his political mentor.
Free read on The Banter:
Your Definitive Guide To The Lawsuits, Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump
It’s all good news for the rule of law.
Read the latest for Banter Members:
Biden Is Part Of A Dying Breed Of Democrats. We Need To Keep It Alive.
America's splintering political system is a sign we can't deal with big problems any more. What we need is a new generation of Biden style Democrats.
DeSantis probably claims he's a Christian...which, based solely on this desperate political display of cowardice, he most certainly is not.