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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Alex Woodward,Johanna Chisholm,Graeme Massie and Gustaf Kilander

Migrant crisis – live: DeSantis stunt could undercut Hispanic voter support in November

Ray Ewing/ Vineyard Gazette 2022

Related video: More Migrants Arrive In D.C. As White House Slams Republican Governors

Lawyers for some of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have called for a criminal investigation to be opened.

The lawyers have said that the migrants were “induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretences,” according to The Guardian.

The Boston group Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) represent 30 of the 48 migrants flown to the Massachusetts island on Wednesday.

“Individuals, working in concert with state officials, including the Florida governor, made numerous false promises [to the migrants] – including of work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance – in order to induce them to travel,” they said.

“We strongly believe that criminal laws were broken by the perpetrators of this stunt,” the group said in a letter to US attorney Rachael Rollins and Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey.

“This cowardly political stunt has placed our clients in peril. Upon arrival, numerous individuals had to be rushed to the hospital, in need of medical care. Some now have immigration hearings as early as Monday thousands of miles away,” they said in a statement.

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