Migrants get visas because they are ‘victims’ of Ron DeSantis

The roughly four dozen migrants that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis helped fly from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard about a year and a half earlier were granted visas because of the Republican’s crimes against the “victims.”

On September 14, 2022, DeSantis imitated immigration policies enforced by Texas Governor Greg Abbott — who has become infamous for busing migrants to liberal sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago — and sent two planes carrying about 50 migrants, including children, from San Antonio. to the small, liberal island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Critics of DeSantis said sending migrants, mostly from Venezuela, to the popular vacation destination was a political stunt that cost Florida taxpayers a total of about $615,000, or about $12,300 per migrant, paid from a $12 million fund to deport unauthorized immigrants to move to Florida. Days after reaching ground in the northeastern enclave, the migrants — assisted by civil rights attorneys — filed a class-action lawsuit seeking financial compensation for “economic, emotional and constitutional harm.”

Those same migrants can now temporarily live and work legally in the U.S. while avoiding deportation by receiving special visas, the migrants’ immigration attorney Rachel Self said. The Miami Herald.

Self said the individuals were tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts with false promises of jobs and other assistance.

DeSantis has stated that migrants flew from Texas and not Florida because it was easier to gather more migrants in one area near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The migrants were granted UN non-immigrant status (or a U visa), described by US Citizenship and Immigration Services as a visa “set aside for victims of certain crimes who have been mentally or physically abused and who are useful to law enforcement or government officials in the research. or prosecution of criminal activity.”

Newsweek contacted DeSantis’ office, Self and USCIS via phone and email for comment.

This visa was created with the passage of the Protection of Victims of Trafficking and Violence Act (including the Protection of Battered Immigrant Women Act) in October 2000, which enhances law enforcement’s ability to investigate cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking in non-citizens and other crimes.

A complaint previously received by Newsweek alleged that DeSantis and his team, in an effort to “unwittingly instill confidence in the Defendants’ scheme,” approached migrants experiencing food insecurity near a resource center in San Antonio, Texas, and offered them items, including a McDonald’s $10 gift card.

DeSantis’ actions were challenged by the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, led by Javier Salazar, which completed its criminal investigation into the transportation of migrants last June and recommended misdemeanor and felony counts of unlawful restraint.

Newsweek contacted the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office by phone and email for comment.