Three Venezuelan immigrants represented by civil rights attorneys in Massachusetts accused DeSantis of violating several federal laws and the U.S. Constitution, asking a federal district court in Boston to bar Florida from “inducing immigrants to travel beyond states through fraud and misrepresentation’. Venezuelan asylum seekers also asked the court to award them and several dozen other migrants who landed on Martha’s Vineyard last week monetary damages for the emotional trauma they say they suffered as a result of being transported to the Massachusetts island. The class-action lawsuit, which seeks to cover the roughly 50 immigrants taken to Martha’s Vineyard, alleged that an unknown person gained the immigrants’ trust in Texas by offering them McDonald’s gift cards, free hotel rooms and help getting them to a destination where they would he was finding work, housing and other services. Migrant flights stir up immigration fight 02:07 The lawsuits accused the person, who immigrants said identified herself as “Pearl,” of “trolling” streets outside an immigrant shelter in San Antonio to locate and befriend Venezuelan asylum seekers who had been released and they had been allowed to seek asylum from the federal government. officials along the southern border. After gaining the trust of a few dozen immigrants, according to the lawsuit, “Perla” put them up in hotel rooms for a few days and then facilitated their transportation to an airport, where they boarded flights that would eventually take them to Martha’s Vineyard. But the lawsuit said the immigrants were told they were being taken to Washington, D.C. or Boston. The immigrants, the lawsuit said, were also given folders that included brochures about Massachusetts’ refugee services, even though the immigrants had not been resettled through the U.S. refugee program. Only after the planes took off were the immigrants told their final destination was Martha’s Vineyard, according to the lawsuit. Upon landing on Massachusetts Island, the emigrants were in for a shock. Some of them, the lawsuit said, tried to call and text “Perla” but got no answer. An immigrant, identified as Jesus Doe, sent “Perla” a voicemail, saying “One question, which facility should we look for? We’ve arrived and no one is saying anything.” A Venezuelan mother traveling with her husband and 11-year-old child said she “felt helpless, cheated and hopeless” after arriving on Martha’s Vineyard. The mother, identified as Yanet Doe in the suit, said she began to cry. The lawsuit, which was filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based organization, said the migrants “experienced cruelty similar to what they fled” in Venezuela, which has seen millions of its citizens flee in recent years due to economic collapse and government repression. Immigrants leave Martha’s Vineyard for the military base 02:10 “The defendants manipulated them, deprived them of their dignity, deprived them of their liberty, bodily autonomy, due process, and equal protection of the law, and impermissibly interfered with the federal government’s exclusive control over immigration in furtherance of an unlawful purpose and a personal political agenda,” the lawyers wrote. The decision to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, which left local and state authorities scrambling to find shelter, food and other accommodations for the unexpected arrivals, drew sharp criticism from asylum seeker advocates, the Biden administration and Democratic officials , who denounced it as a dehumanizing political spectacle. On Monday, the Sheriff of Bexar County, Texas, said his office had launched an investigation into the Florida transfer tactic, referring to the affected migrants as victims who were swept up in the flights. Advocates and some Democrats have called for the Justice Department to conduct a similar investigation. But DeSantis defended his actions, echoing arguments by other Republican governors who said Democratic-led cities and states should take in immigrants because their jurisdictions have declared they are sanctuaries for immigrants living in the country without legal status. Asked about Tuesday’s lawsuit, Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ director of communications, called the action “opportunistic” in a statement. “The transfer of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard was on a voluntary basis. The immigrants were homeless, hungry and abandoned — and these activists didn’t care at the time,” Fenske said. “The Florida program gave them a fresh start in a sanctuary state, and these individuals chose to take advantage of the charter flights to Massachusetts.” DeSantis’ office also shared a consent form purportedly provided to immigrants who moved to Martha’s Vineyard. While part of the form has been translated into Spanish, the part that lists Massachusetts as the “final destination” is not. Like DeSantis, Republican governors in Texas and Arizona have also moved migrants from the US-Mexico border to Democratic-controlled cities. Since April, Texas has bused more than 11,000 immigrants to Washington, DC. New York; and Chicago. Arizona, meanwhile, has sent more than 1,800 immigrants to DC The 50 Venezuelan migrants who flew to Martha’s Vineyard last week were flown to Joint Base Cape Cod, where they received shelter, legal counsel and other services facilitated by Massachusetts state officials. More Camilo Montoya-Galvez Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter for CBS News. Based in Washington, D.C., he covers immigration policy and politics.
