A federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes a day after a Texas sheriff announced he’s launching an investigation into migrants being transporting from San Antonio to Massachusetts, saying the immigrants were “lured” and “preyed upon.”
A Boston civil rights group on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, arguing that the governor and others broke numerous laws when they shipped dozens of migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
The lawsuit was filed in Massachusetts U.S. District Court. The migrants were lured to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses, Lawyers for Civil Rights argues in the lawsuit. The 48 immigrants from Venezuela were told, under false pretenses, that they would have work opportunities, education and immigration assistance if they boarded the planes, according to the lawsuit. Once the planes landed in Martha’s Vineyard, those who had lured them disappeared. State and island officials were blindsided as well.
“For the governor of Florida to cynically use recently arrived immigrants who have applied for asylum in the U.S. to advance a hate-driven agenda intended to create confusion and rejection throughout the country, is not only morally despicable, but utterly contrary to the best traditions of humanitarian protection embraced by most Americans,” said Oscar Chacon, Alianza Americas’ executive director.