Venezuelan immigrants flown a few days ago to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on Tuesday sued Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his Secretary of Transportation Jared W. Perdue for engaging in a ” fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.
The lawsuit, filed in a court in Boston, alleges that the Venezuelans were falsely told they would be transported to Boston or Washington, in addition to being induced to travel with a $10 McDonald’s gift card.
The irregular immigrants were in Texas, in a group of about 50 people, including children, when they were transported Wednesday in two charter planes to Martha’s Vineyard, a small island south of Boston frequented by the rich and powerful. The cost of the flights was $650,000, according to the lawsuit.
DeSantis claimed credit for the flights as part of an effort by Republicans to shift responsibility for immigrants to Democratic governors.
Tuesday’s lawsuit — brought by the immigration rights group Alianza Americas and three Venezuelans on behalf of the entire group — alleges that immigrants fled socialist Venezuela, a country plagued by violence and with an economy in crisis, “in a desperate attempt to to protect themselves and their families from gang, police and state violence and the oppression of political dissent”.
In looking for the proper channels to obtain legal immigration status in the United States, the suit says, Venezuelans have experienced cruelty similar to what drove them to flee their home country.
The suit said DeSantis and other Florida officials “inadmissibly interfered with the federal government’s exclusive control over immigration to advance an illegal objective and personal political agenda.”
Executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which seeks class action status in the lawsuit, Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal stated that “no human being should be used as a political pawn”.
DeSantis responded through her communications director, Taryn Fenske. “It is opportunistic for activists to use illegal immigrants for political theater,” she said Tuesday.
DeSantis’ move last week was heavily criticized by the White House, which accused Republican governors of using immigrants as “political chess pawns.”
Days earlier, fellow Republican Greg Abbott of Texas had dispatched two buses with irregular foreigners to a Washington neighborhood not far from the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.
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