And could it be illegal?
The political drama unfolding over conditions at the southern border escalated last week when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used state funds to pay for migrants to be flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. The stunt has focused the nation’s attention on a conflict that’s been roiling for months. Here’s everything you need to know about the issue.
What’s the background?
Republican politicians in the South have been transporting migrants to blue cities, as a protest of the sharp rise in migration at the border, which they’ve blamed on President Biden. According to the New York Times, Texas has sent more than 6,200 migrants to Washington D.C. this year, with Arizona dispatching about 1,000 since May. Many of the asylum seekers are Venezuelans, fleeing the economic and political turmoil that’s engulfed the country.
DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott moved to underscore their point last week. DeSantis paid to fly about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. — long a vacation destination for wealthy liberals — while Abbott sent 50 migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington D.C.
“Biden & ‘Border Czar’ Harris refuse to acknowledge the consequences of their open border policies,” Abbott tweeted. “Texas is bringing the border to their backyard to relieve our overwhelmed communities.”
Many prominent Democrats have condemned the act as political theater, with Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar calling DeSantis “soulless”. “The migrants are human beings and we got to treat them like human beings,” Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents a border district in Texas, tells CNN. “They’re being used as political pawns to get publicity.”
And there is some pushback on the other side of the aisle. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales told Axios, “I get why the governors are doing it,” because the move makes headlines, but he warned, “anytime you’re using people as political ploys, it’s dangerous.”
Is this even legal?
Immigration lawyers are scrutinizing whether any laws were broken by the political stunt. It’s not illegal for states to transport migrants, but if there’s evidence that those people were lied to by state officials, that’s a different story.
Even Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — a lawyer and Harvard Law graduate — acknowledged in an appearance on Fox News that the move could be illegal. That said, he still commended Abbott and DeSantis for it.
After attorneys for the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard alleged that the group had been misled, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into the matter. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told reporters Monday that it wasn’t clear whether any laws had been broken, but that the migrants had been “lured under false pretenses” into staying at a hotel for a couple of days before they were flown to Martha’s Vineyard.
“They were promised work,” he said. “They were promised the solution to several of their problems.”
Salazar says a recruiter was paid a “bird dog fee” to gather roughly 50 people near a San Antonio migrant resource center. (The League of United Latin American Citizens is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the identification of the recruiter, NBC reports, and “Wanted” posters have gone up around San Antonio.)
The migrants were then flown to the Cape Cod enclave “for little more than a photo op or a video op, and they were unceremoniously stranded,” Salazar says.
Fighting back
A Texas sheriff announced on September 19 that his office is opening a criminal investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to send nearly 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said that while it wasn’t clear whether any laws had been broken, the migrants were “lured under false pretenses.”
On September 20, the news broke that several of the migrants in question are also suing DeSantis, alleging that they’re victims of fraud for political purposes.
Three of the migrants who arrived in Massachusetts last week, along with Alianza Americas, a Chicago-based network of migrant-led organizations, have accused DeSantis and his co-defendants of carrying out “a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme … for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.”
Roots in ‘Reverse Freedom Rides’
This isn’t the first time politicians have used real people as political pawns in this way. The Martha’s Vineyard incident bears a striking resemblance to the “Reverse Freedom Rides” orchestrated 60 years ago by white supremacists. In retaliation for the Freedom Rides — when groups of volunteers rode buses through the South in support of ending segregation — white segregationists plotted to bus Black Americans to northern cities, promising good jobs and housing. Many were taken to Hyannis, Mass., near President Kennedy’s holiday home, and were eventually housed in the same Cape Cod military base where today’s migrants have taken shelter, the Washington Post reports.
Then, as in now, progressives viewed the move as deeply cruel. Massachusetts Governor at the time, John Volpe, called the rides “traffic in human misery” and it ended up backfiring politically, the Post notes, because even some of those who supported segregation were put off by the “cynical manipulation” of poor Black Americans.
