Three migrants who were part of a group that was flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last week by the state of Florida are suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials, alleging they were duped into traveling to an isolated island in the northeast as part of a scheme to benefit the governor’s political career.
The suit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, alleges that DeSantis, Florida’s Transportation Department secretary and others tricked migrants into leaving Texas by offering them McDonald’s gift cards and other items to board the flights, and by promising them assistance and employment.
The plaintiffs include three anonymous Venezuelan migrants and Alianza Americas, a transnational organization that advocates on behalf of immigrants rights. The lawsuit names five other people as defendants for allegedly participating in the scheme.
Two defendants, identified by migrants as “Perla” and “Emanuel,” are believed by attorneys to have been the people recruiting migrants in San Antonio to board the planes.
“These immigrants, who are pursuing the proper channels for lawful immigration status in the United States, experienced cruelty akin to what they fled in their home country,” the lawsuit alleges. “Defendants manipulated them, stripped them of their dignity, deprived them of their liberty, bodily autonomy, due process, and equal protection under law, and impermissibly interfered with the Federal Government’s exclusive control over immigration in furtherance of an unlawful goal and a personal political agenda,” the suit reads.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. DeSantis, who is running for reelection and viewed as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, has defended the program to move migrants across the country, which he has described as a protest against President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
On Monday, he said the migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard “were provided an ability to be in the most posh sanctuary jurisdiction, maybe in the world.”
“They were hungry, homeless. They had no opportunity at all,” DeSantis said.
The lawsuit alleges that the five unnamed defendants, which include “Perla” and “Emanuel,” made copies of the migrants’ immigration paperwork “so they could confirm that their immigration status met the ultimate ends of their scheme.”
Meanwhile, migrants were put up in hotel rooms until enough people had agreed to board the planes.
“On information and belief, this took days of work by the” unnamed defendants, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit further claims that the the defendants “intentionally sequestered the class members” to prevent them from discussing the details of the trip with any “true Good Samaritans” and so that they wouldn’t change their minds while they waited.
The five unnamed defendants allegedly gave migrants’ phone numbers to call if they had any questions about the trip. But the lawsuit says the group was “suddenly nowhere to be found and unreachable by phone” when the planes landed in Massachusetts.
Last week, DeSantis denied that the people sent to Martha’s Vineyard were unaware where they were heading. The private contractor hired by the Florida Department of Transportation to carry out the program told them where they were going, he said.
“The folks that are contracted (for the program), not only do the people give them a release form to sign, they actually give them a packet, and in that packet included a map of Martha’s Vineyard,” he said Friday. “So it was obvious that that’s where they were going.”
DeSantis also pledged to spend “every penny” of the $12 million allocated in the state budget to move migrants to other parts of the country. But his administration has released almost no details about the program or last week’s flights.
The state has made two payments worth a combined $1.56 million to a Destin, Florida-based aviation vendor called Vertol Systems Company, but the Department of Transportation has not released the contract with the company. His spokespeople have left a number of questions unanswered about the program from news outlets, including the Herald/Times.
State lawmakers, including Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, have also posed questions to the state about whether the spending complies with the 2022 state law creating the program. The law authorized $12 million — interest earned from federal pandemic aid dollars — to be spent “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”
The migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard last week were in Texas and had not set foot in Florida.
DeSantis, who has spent the last year complaining about the threat of migrants to Floridians, said on Friday that he couldn’t find any in the state to deport. Instead, he said the program was pivoting to “profile” migrants in other states who say they want to come to Florida.
“What we’re trying to do is profile, ‘OK, who do you think is going to try to get to Florida? And if they get in a car with two other people, there’s no way we’re going to be able to detect that. So you’re trying to identify who’s most likely to come.”
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Miami Herald staff writer Nick Nehamas and Herald/Times staff writer Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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