The roughly four dozen migrants that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis helped fly from Texas to Martha's Vineyard about a year and a half ago have been granted legal designations 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 known for busing migrants to liberal, sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago—and sent two planes of about 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 down, the migrants—aided by civil rights attorneys—filed a class action lawsuit demanding financial compensation for "economic, emotional and constitutional harms."
Those same migrants are now able to temporarily live and work legally in the U.S. while avoiding deportation due to applying to receive special visas, the migrants' immigration attorney, Rachel Self, told The Miami Herald.
The migrants applied for 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."
Self said that the individuals were tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts with false promises of jobs and other aid.
She told Newsweek that the migrants in question did not receive a U visa at this time, but so far, three have received "bona fide determinations for a new visa," with more expected to come.
"The cases are so backlogged that USCIS issues these determinations to allow people to wait in the U.S. with work authorization until a visa becomes available, so that is what they have received," Self said. "Ultimately, the adjudication of the U visa cannot happen until the U visa becomes available, with which current backlogs mean probably 20 years from now."
DeSantis has said 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.
Newsweek reached out to DeSantis' office 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 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.
On April 1, however, Boston Judge Allison Burroughs dismissed the governor and other officials as defendants and allowed the suit to proceed against only one of the original nine defendants, Vertol Systems, the plane charter company hired by Florida to fly the migrants to the island community just off the coast of Cape Cod, according to the Boston Globe.
"The Bexar County Sheriff's Office completed a thorough investigation and submitted a complete case on the events which occurred here in Bexar County," Salazar told Newsweek via email. "It is our belief that the facts of the case met the elements of the offense of unlawful restraint, as demonstrated in the case forwarded.
"We hope to bring justice for the individuals who were exploited and to bring charges for those responsible. We look forward to hearing the next steps as the case works its way through the criminal justice process."
Update 4/23/24, 9:34 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
