The approximate four dozen migrants that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis helped fly from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard about a year and a half earlier have been granted visas due to the Republican’s crimes against the “victims.”
On September 14, 2022, DeSantis emulated immigration policies enforced by Texas Governor Greg Abbott—who has become notorious for busing migrants to liberal, sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago—and sent two planes of approximately 50 migrants, including children, from San Antonio to the small, liberal island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Critics of DeSantis said that sending the migrants, mostly from Venezuela, to the popular vacationing spot was a political stunt that cost Florida taxpayers about $615,000 in total, or about $12,300 per migrant paid out of a $12 million fund to relocate unauthorized immigrants from Florida. Days after they touched ground in the northeastern enclave, the migrants—aided by civil rights attorneys—filed a class action lawsuit demanding financial compensation for “economic, emotional and constitutional harms.”
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Those same migrants are now able to temporarily live and work legally in the U.S. while avoiding deportation due to receiving special visas, the migrants’ immigration attorney, Rachel Self, told The Miami Herald.
Self said that the individuals were tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts with false promises of jobs and other aid.
DeSantis has stated that migrants were flown from Texas and not from Florida because it was easier to gather more migrants in one area near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The migrants received U nonimmigrant status (or a U visa), described by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as a visa “set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.”
Newsweek reached out to DeSantis’ office, Self, and USCIS via phone and email for comment.
This visa was created with the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (including the Battered Immigrant Women’s Protection Act) in October 2000, providing law enforcement agencies with better ability to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of noncitizens and other crimes.
A complaint previously obtained by Newsweek alleged that DeSantis and his team, in an effort to “induce unwitting trust with Defendants’ scheme,” approached migrants experiencing food insecurity near a resource center in San Antonio, Texas, and offered them items including a $10 McDonald’s gift certificate.
DeSantis’ actions were challenged by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, headed by Javier Salazar, which last June completed its criminal investigation regarding the transporting of the migrants and recommended misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint.
Newsweek reached out to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office via phone and email for comment.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.