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The governor of Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis, was sued in the Southern District Court of Florida for sending Venezuelan immigrants with false promises from Texas to a Martha’s Vineyard island in Massachusetts, a state where they are also facing a class action lawsuit by those affected.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Leontire & Associates, PC, and the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI) at Harvard Law School filed a federal lawsuit in the Southern District Court of Florida against Florida Governor , Ron DeSantis, and Jared W. Perdue , Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation.
The plaintiffs contend that Florida’s $
“Florida is usurping the exclusive role of the federal government in regulating and enforcing immigration law “, they allege in the lawsuit, which argues that the program is discriminatory and constitutes a sample of “harassment of immigrants sponsored by the state based on race, color and national origin.”
George J. Leontire, director of Leontire & Associates stated that, “
When the sending of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard became known and the controversy broke out, DeSantis defended his decision as a response to the immigration policy of the Government of President Joe Biden , which, as he explained, leaves the US borders “open” to foreigners without permission to settle in the country.
The Republican governor said that immigrants who were in a shelter in Texas after requesting political asylum at the border traveled to Martha’s Vineyard voluntarily, but the migrants say they boarded the flight to Massachusetts under false promises of work and shelter.
The group of Massachusetts lawyers representing migrants who decided to file a federal class action lawsuit against Ron DeSantis, made some changes to the documents where they added the governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier.
In the amended complaint, there is also Perla Huerta indicated as the person who led the false promises, Lawrence Keefe of Florida Public Safety, the aircraft company that moved them and their CEO.
The control body of The US Department of the Treasury is investigating, for its part, whether the governor misused money related to the relief federal covid-14 to pay for flights.
In Texas, a sheriff opened an investigation into the flight from San Antonio and in Florida, Democratic state senator Jason Pizzo filed a lawsuit to prevent DeSantis from using more money on immigrant relocation , but it was dismissed for technical reasons.
Despite this controversy, Florida voters gave DeSantis four more years of office in the elections. intermediate ones held in November. A pre-vote poll showed that voters agreed with the relocation of immigrants.
“The relocation program is nothing more than an expensive political stunt designed to feed the political ambitions of Governor DeSantis with a diet of state-sponsored xenophobic harassment,” said Ronald S. Sullivan, Jr., director of the College’s Institute of Criminal Justice of Harvard Law.
With information from EFE