Many of the immigrants seeking asylum taken to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSandis were family members seeking a “better life,” a local lawmaker told Insider on Wednesday. Among the 49 mostly Venezuelan immigrants brought to the posh coastal enclave from Texas last week were 27 “family units,” Massachusetts State Sen. Julian Scheer said, explaining that some couples and groups were siblings or cousins. The majority of the immigrants were men in their 20s and 30s, the Democratic politician said. The group included six children, he said. One immigrant, a 26-year-old systems engineer, traveled to the United States with his two brothers from Venezuela, Cyr said. “These are people trying to make a better life,” said Cyr, who spoke personally with several of the immigrants after DeSantis had them fly on two chartered planes to Martha’s Vineyard unannounced last week, sparking a political firestorm. Scheer said Venezuela is “a failed regime under a communist dictatorship.” The immigrants, Scheer said, spoke “about how they are leaving this regime for opportunity, for democracy.” “I think we have to keep reminding everyone involved that we’re talking about human beings and seeing human beings, vulnerable, who were legitimately seeking a better life being used as political pawns,” Shear said. An immigrant group on Tuesday filed a federal class-action lawsuit against DeSantis and other state officials, alleging they ran a “scheme to defraud vulnerable immigrants to advance a political motive.” Lawyers representing the majority of immigrants have asked state and federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into what they call a “disgraceful political stunt.” The migrants have since been taken to a military base in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. “This is not about finding solutions to immigration,” Cyr, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, told Insider. “This is a political stunt at the expense of vulnerable people – this is disgusting. This is un-American.”
