The Venezuelan migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by the state of Florida last month are one step closer to staying in the United States — because Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has questioned their right to remain here legally, made them the victims of a potential crime, their attorney says.
The 48 migrants say they were tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island with false promises of jobs and other aid, part of a taxpayer-funded operation DeSantis said he set up to draw attention to the border crisis. The Sheriff of Bexar County, which covers San Antonio, quickly opened a criminal investigation.
Now, the sheriff has granted each migrant a certification allowing them to apply for a special kind of visa meant for crime victims who are helping law enforcement, according to Rachel Self, an attorney for the migrants. Those applying for the visa cannot be sent back to their homelands until their immigration cases are settled — which can take as long as six or seven years, Self said in a statement.
“No matter what your political beliefs are, these people are all crime victims,” she said.
DeSantis and other top Republicans have raised doubts about whether the migrants, and hundreds of thousands of others like them coming over the nation’s southern border, have valid claims to stay in the United States.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Neither did Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, a Democrat. DeSantis has previously said that the migrants boarded the flights “voluntarily.”
The visas sought by the migrants are known as “U visas.” Such visas are “set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. They can eventually lead to permanent lawful status in the United States.
The Martha’s Vineyard migrants had been expected to pursue asylum claims, rather than applying for the special U visa.
“This is not a quick and easy process,” Self said. “While the application is pending, the applicant can receive work authorization, but there is no guarantee as to when it will be granted. This is not a process anyone goes through for a quick fix. ... It is a process we want people to undertake because they are essential witnesses in a criminal investigation — because helping law enforcement is the right thing to do.”
The migrants have been assisting the sheriff’s Organized Crime Division in its investigation. The sheriff’s office is investigating whether politically connected contractors working for the state of Florida broke the law by making allegedly false promises and ‘luring’ the migrants onto the Sept. 14 flights.
While the flights have boosted DeSantis’ standing in national Republican circles as he seeks re-election and mulls a bid for president in 2024, they have also led to significant legal challenges.
In addition to the criminal investigation in San Antonio, DeSantis is facing a class-action federal law suit from migrants on the Martha’s Vineyard flights who claim he violated their civil rights.
In Florida, a Democratic state Senator is suing DeSantis, saying the governor used taxpayer money illegally for the operation. The lawsuit points out that the budget language authorizing the program set aside $12 million to remove “unauthorized aliens” from the state of Florida — not potential asylum seekers who have permission to be in the United States pending hearings and are living in other states like Texas.
The Miami Herald obtained state documents setting guidelines for the program, which also said the migrants should be “found in Florida.”
Separately, The U.S. Treasury Department is examining the funding of the migrant flights.
DeSantis has previously expressed skepticism about whether the migrants should be allowed to stay in the United States — even though they turned themselves in to border authorities and have been granted parole to remain in the country legally, pending court hearings.
“There’s a whole cottage industry that anyone that wants to get in should just claim asylum,” the governor said at a news conference in Miami last month. “Most of these people clearly do not qualify for asylum, so that is being abused.”
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(Miami Herald staff writers Bianca Padró Ocasio and Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.)
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