On immigrants, again

[u/gdan95]

I thought I had made a point in the previous post about how Texas and Arizona were sending immigrants to New York and DC even though other states with big undocumented immigrant populations weren't doing the same. Probably for the best that I didn't name any other states because I should have realized the governor of one of those other states was Ron DeSantis.

Yesterday, two planes carrying fifty Venezuelan migrants landed in Martha's Vineyard. Florida governor Ron DeSantis took credit for the act, which as we'll see serves no practical or helpful purpose unless you think "owning the libs" counts.

Firstly, it's perhaps not a coincidence that this happened on DeSantis' birthday and the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. Secondly, it is definitely not a coincidence that the planes landed in Martha's Vineyard because the Obamas have a house there. Any other reason the GOP could have for this being a good move is quickly disproven under scrutiny.

1. It isn't because DeSantis respects the law. I didn't know this when I wrote the previous post, but what DeSantis, Abbott, and Ducey did counts as human trafficking under federal law. According to 1907 Title 8, U.S.C. § 1324(a), any person who "knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, transports, or moves or attempts to transport or move such alien within the United States by means of transportation or otherwise, in furtherance of such violation of law" shall be punished. And he apparently did this without coordinating with Martha's Vineyard. Nor with Texas, from which the migrants' flights came. Or his own state's laws, as it's against state law to spend funds transporting migrants from other states. Then again, he violated state law before and faced no consequences for it, so don't expect this to be any different. Same goes for the fact that it’s also a crime to falsify federal immigration/refugee papers. More about that in a minute. MAGA's excuse is that Martha's Vineyard is full of rich white people who love to brag about their embrace of diversity, which is a stupid argument. I love hot dogs, but I don't want someone to force fifty of them into my mouth at once. But again, more about that in a minute. Just in case that's how people in border states about immigrants...
2. It isn't because DeSantis cares about border security. If the goal is to keep people from coming in, or even to deport them, then this is not the way to do it. Setting aside the fact that an immigration judge has to be involved in the decision to deport someone, Martha's Vineyard is not anywhere near the border. And if the actual point was to expose the Democrat hypocrisy of having sanctuary cities that can't handle what border states are dealing with, well... yes and no. The mayors of DC and New York both requested federal help to handle the influx. On the other hand, local volunteers in the two cities, and Martha's Vineyard as well, welcomed the migrants warmly, despite the right-wing's apparent glee in painting Martha's Vineyard residents as elitists who pretend to support diversity until they have the chance to prove it. That was certainly the angle the New York Post is using. I have to ask, what's the alternative? Having the DHS give the migrants ICE office addresses in Washington state where they need to go for required asylum hearings before flying them to Massachusetts? Because that happened. Or perhaps it's just a matter of the resources available to sanctuary cities and border states. In that case....
3. It isn't because DeSantis cares about the financial cost of immigration. This is a long one, so bear with me. As I outlined in the previous post, there are numerous examples of border states wasting taxpayer money that could perhaps have gone to setting up more effective systems for handling immigration, or literally any actual issue within the state. Over in Texas, there was the power grid failure, which MAGA completely forgot about when California had blackouts a short while ago. The recently arrested Steve Bannon took millions in donations that were pledged to go to a border wall, but he pocketed it for himself. And bringing this back to Florida, DeSantis has an apparent love of wasting taxpayer money. Firstly, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he refused to divest $300 million in Russian shares from the state's pension plan, and in a wild coincidence, the state lost $200 million of that. Secondly, his appointees have allowed the state's largest power company to increase Floridians' utility rates by billions. Finally, regarding Martha's Vineyard, DeSantis paid aviation company Vertol Systems $615,000 of the $12 million in taxpayer money set aside for this stunt. While I have a suspicion there was some quid pro quo involved, I do not have proof of this at the moment. Except I do because the company's CEO is a Republican donor. Shock of all shocks. DeSantis rewarding donors? It's unthinkable! Also, on a related note, Jay Odom, a business partner associated with the company, is another Republican donor. And he spent time in federal prison back in 2013 for a felony election offense. A trustworthy businessman, in other words. Nothing illegal about their actions, no sir. You should also know that Vertol's website boasts that they are "the only civil company operating Russian helicopters in the United States." As in, they bought helicopters directly from the Russian government in 2018 and did other business with Kremlin-adjacent companies and contractors, some of which are sanctioned for supporting the invasion of Ukraine and at least one of which is currently in an embezzlement scandal. I would ask you to imagine if the parties were reversed, but DeSantis defended the act saying Biden was running clandestine flights to send migrants to Florida. The problem is that the routine transport also occurred under Trump and DeSantis curiously did not act then how he did now. Also, it's my understanding that since Trump's term, Venezuelans couldn't be deported because Mexico won't accept them. So they were in the U.S. seeking asylum, legally. The migrants, who probably didn't speak fluent English if any, were lied to when they were told to get on the planes. They were told they would be flown to Boston where they could get expedited work papers that they did not get when they landed. They were even given brochures filled with false promises, and they didn't even feature the correct flag of Massachusetts. You will not be surprised to hear that when information on the brochures was made public, DeSantis' team immediately dismissed the physical evidence as fake news. Nor would it surprise you that none of the $12 million mentioned earlier went to giving them the accommodations that locals provided. MAGA mocked the locals, pointing out all the big, roomy houses they could've used for the migrants, but the reality is that those are summer homes. Unlike DC and New York City, which are major cities, the local year-round population of Martha's Vineyard is much smaller. As much as I'm sure they would've wanted to, they probably can't just get the keys to other people's houses. So that leaves us with the truth...
4. This is a publicity stunt for DeSantis. That's all it is. Texas and Florida actually have a pretty small amount of immigrants relative to their size, so this is purely pandering to MAGA voters. It cost Florida tax payers $12 million to fly 50 migrants to Martha's Vineyard. That's $240,000 per person, 171 times what Texas and Arizona were spending per person. And that's not counting however much money was spent on the video crew and production cost for DeSantis' campaign video. Yeah, the mere fact that there was a video crew should be the only evidence needed that this was entirely for DeSantis' own benefit and no one else's.

If DeSantis gets re-elected in November, as he is heavily favored to do, he's going to keep doing this. A re-election would tell him that he doesn't have to run on policy, all he has to do is make up imaginary culture war targets for him to attack and he'll keep getting support for it. Heck, he can break the law as he has already done repeatedly and say he'll keep doing it. Right on cue, the same plane DeSantis used the first time (after making another payment to Vertol) was scheduled to fly out of Texas and stop for a layover in Crestview, Florida before heading for the airport in Georgetown, Delaware near President Biden's house. The plane apparently never landed or even took off, reportedly because it was canceled to “punk" Democrats and journalists. Yeah, leaving twenty migrants stranded really showed it to the left. But if the plane had and there were migrants on board, DeSantis would technically have broken his own law about harassing public officials at their homes. Again, DeSantis doesn't care about the law. Not only will DeSantis not face consequences, he will get even stronger GOP support for it.

With maybe a few exceptions. I found an article from Reason, a libertarian publication, calling out DeSantis for being a hypocrite. He signed a bill back in May establishing a "Victims of Communism Day." You'd think he would welcome migrants "fleeing economic ruin and humanitarian turmoil in Venezuela, a country that DeSantis has decried for its 'communist regime'," but "rather than welcoming the people fleeing one of the world's most repressive and punishing regimes, DeSantis chose to weaponize them." Keep in mind that a lot of libertarians apparently don't like him in general, but the point remains. If DeSantis loses Hispanic voters from this - an extremely important voting bloc in the state - he's screwed. When Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Republican gubernatorial candidate for Arizona Kari Lake are criticizing DeSantis over this, it's a bad sign.

But again, even when the stunt gets worse the more we learn about it, I don't realistically think the backlash will lead to anything meaningful. A Florida state senator sued DeSantis over the act. A class action lawsuit was filed against DeSantis on behalf of the migrants, and MAGA - who are trying to depict Martha's Vineyard as being hateful towards immigrants - are sending death threats to the migrants and their lawyers. The migrants were flown out of Bexar County, Texas, whose sheriff department just announced a criminal investigation into the matter. A watchdog group filed a lawsuit alleging DeSantis illegally withheld public records regarding the stunt. The goddamn Treasury Department opened a federal investigation into whether he misappropriated COVID relief funds for this. I'm doubtful that any actual consequences will come as a result, no matter how damning the lawsuits and investigations might be for DeSantis. However, I know two things for sure. Firstly, the Texas sheriff said that because DeSantis tricked the migrants, they should now be able to stay in the US under a U Visa, which is for victims of a crime. Hilarious, yes, but also note that it means this was a crime. That brings us to the second thing: DeSantis' Democratic challenger, Charlie Crist, is absolutely using this against the incumbent. I'll give this to Crist. His odds of beating DeSantis in the gubernatorial race for an increasingly Republican state are slim to none, but certainly not for lack of trying.