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Friday, April 19, 2024

Activists Use Martha’s Vineyard Migrants as Political Pawns to Sue DeSantis

'It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater...'

(Headline USA) After persuading three of the 50 migrants flown into Martha’s Vineyard that they were fools for thinking they would be welcome in the elite island playground, an open-borders activist group is now suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to save face for the Left’s xenophobic humiliation.

Lawyers for the Venezuelans on Tuesday accused DeSantis and his transportation secretary of engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, “which was completely false,” and were induced with perks such as $10 McDonald’s gift certificates.

“No human being should be used as a political pawn,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is seeking class-action status in the lawsuit filed on behalf of several migrants who were aboard last week’s flights and Alianza Americas, a network of advocacy groups.

“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communication director, in a statement late Tuesday.

Their lack of self-awareness notwithstaning, it remained unclear who was paying the lawyers—or the left-wing activist groups—to act on behalf of the illegal immigrants.

While the suit may largely be the Left’s way of striking back in retaliation for the stunt—a decisive optical win for DeSantis by many accounts—it is equally likely that it is meant to have a chilling effect on future shipments that have left other affluent leftist communities and so-called sanctuary cities feeling insecure and at-risk.

On Tuesday, a chartered plane of about 30 illegals was reportedly due to touch down just 20 miles from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where President Joe Biden keeps a vacation home.

DeSantis declined to confirm speculation, based on flight-tracking software, that more migrants were on the move.

Asked Tuesday about speculation that DeSantis may send migrants to his home state of Delaware, President Joe Biden said: “He should come visit. We have a beautiful shoreline.”

Biden made no mention of whether the migrants were welcome to visit. However, the president is in the process of constructing a $500 million wall at taxpayer expense to secure his own residence.

In addition to DeSantis’s charter flights, several busloads of illegals were sent recently by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to be dropped off outside the official residence of Vice President and Border Czar Kamala Harris in the posh northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C.

City officials have complained bitterly of the shipments from Abbott, accusing him of turning D.C., along with Chicago and New York City, into “border towns.”

DeSantis on Tuesday defended his decision to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, saying their decisions were completely voluntary and that they were in awful condition when Florida got involved.

Video reports from the chaotic scene last week indicated that the migrants were thanking DeSantis for relocating them shortly before they were deported from the historic island by the Massachusetts national guard.

Yet, the activists’ lawsuit, which also names Florida Secretary of Transportation Jared W. Perdue as a defendant, alleges that migrants were induced to cross state lines under false pretenses—a line that some Democratic officials are using to urge a federal investigation.

On Monday, Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, opened an investigation into the flights, even though the elected Democrat did not know what laws may have been broken.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio, have asked the Justice Department to begin a probe.

Conservatives—and even some reluctant Democrats—have continued to praise DeSantis’s move, with several songs going viral for mocking the response of the virtue-signaling left-wing hypocrites.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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