A group of migrants huddle on a sidewalk in Martha’s Vineyard, MA on September 15, 2022 (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Popular Information has obtained documentary evidence that migrants from Venezuela were provided with false information to convince them to board flights chartered by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). The documents suggest that the flights were not just a callous political stunt but potentially a crime.
Last Wednesday, two planes landed in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and dropped off about 50 migrants from Venezuela. DeSantis quickly took credit. The migrants were used as political pawns in the hopes of provoking a negative reaction from a liberal community.
“When people are brought to their front door, they go berserk,” DeSantis said. “Their virtue signaling is a fraud.” But the people in Martha’s Vineyard did not go berserk. Instead, they rallied together to provide shelter, food, clothing, and other necessities for the group. On Friday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) facilitated their voluntary relocation to Joint Base Cape Cod, which is “a safe temporary accommodation appropriate for the specific needs of families and individuals.”
The charter flights appear to be inspired by a Tucker Carlson monologue from July 26, in which the notoriously xenophobic host suggested sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in “huge numbers.”
DeSantis reportedly sent a videographer along for the ride, and Fox News obtained “exclusive footage of the migrants’ arrival.”
In the aftermath of the flights, a key issue of contention is whether the migrants boarded the flights freely and voluntarily. While DeSantis and his administration repeatedly referred to the migrants as “illegal immigrants,” the migrants surrendered to immigration officials after crossing the border into Texas. They are now seeking asylum from the repressive authoritarian regime in Venezuela. The migrants are legally permitted to remain in the United States while their cases are being considered by immigration courts.
So these migrants are able to voluntarily travel within the United States. But many of the migrants told reporters that they were misled about the nature of the flights. Several migrants told NPR they were told the flight was going to Boston, not Martha’s Vineyard. According to the migrants, a woman who identified herself as Perla also said that, if they traveled to Boston, they could receive “expedited work papers.”
The allegation that the migrants were misled is legally significant. It would mean that the flights were not just heartless, but potentially criminal. If the migrants were misled, the scheme to transport them to Martha’s Vineyard could constitute fraud, false imprisonment, or kidnapping. “There is absolutely the possibility of both civil and criminal liability if people were lied to about where they were going [or] what they were going to get when they got there,” lawyer Susan Church told Politico.
DeSantis has been adamant that the migrants were not misled. He claims that migrants were provided with a map showing the destination was Martha’s Vineyard and describes the flights as “all voluntary.” Appearing on Fox News on Sunday Morning, Florida Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez (R) called allegations that the migrants were misled “categorically false.”
Popular Information, however, has obtained a brochure that was provided to the migrants who ultimately agreed to the flights. It was provided to Popular Information by Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a Boston-based legal organization that represents 30 of the migrants. The brochure says that migrants who arrive in Massachusetts will be eligible for numerous benefits, including “8 months cash assistance,” “assistance with housing,” “food,” “clothing,” “transportation to job interviews,” “job training,” “job placement,” “registering children for school,” “assistance applying for Social Security cards,” and many other benefits.
None of this, however, is true.
Matt Cameron, a Boston-based immigration attorney, explained that the benefits described in the brochure are resettlement benefits available to refugees who have been referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and authorized to live in the United States. These benefits are not available in Massachusetts to the migrants who boarded the flights, who are still in the process of seeking asylum.
The migrants who boarded the planes “absolutely do not have access to cash, housing, and other resettlement benefits which are provided through both federal funds and partnerships with faith-based [organizations],” Cameron said.
The brochure, which is crudely designed to resemble a government document, does not explain that these benefits described are only available to specially designated refugees.
According to some of the migrants, the benefits described in the brochure were also promised verbally by Perla to lure them onto the planes chartered by DeSantis. “[T]hey told us that they were going to help us with the rent, to get a job, that was the only option left to us,” one migrant, Eduardo Linares, told the Texas Tribune. (Linares ultimately declined to board the flight.)
There could be real consequences for migrants who were convinced to board the flight under false pretenses. Seeking asylum is an “often years-long process through immigration courts that requires [migrants] to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement periodically.” Some migrants now find themselves thousands of miles away from where they need to report for their next check-in. A missed appointment can “be detrimental to their case.”
On Saturday, LCR wrote to U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, calling on them to open a formal investigation. “Individuals, working in concert with State officials, including the Florida Governor, made numerous false promises to LCR’s clients — including of work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance — in order to induce them to travel,” LCR said in the letter. “[T]hose who had induced our clients to travel under these false pretenses disappeared, leaving our clients to learn that the offers of assistance had all been a ruse to exploit them for political purposes.”
DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment about the brochure.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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5 thoughts on “The smoking gun in Martha’s Vineyard”
DeSantis has been adamant that the migrants were not misled. — OF COURSE this is what he would say!! But if a person has any brains at all, they would know these people are going to believe anything they’re told since they want so very badly to become part of the U.S.
It’s disgusting that these power/money-hungry politicians are being “allowed” to play with people’s lives!!
Hello Nan. Yes and not just the democrats are noticing this. Other normally non political groups are also keyed in on it. The DOJ is looking into human trafficking. This is a serious issue. See these were not illegal non-documented people, they were people who had turned themselves in for asylum and had been processed. They are and were legally in the US at this point. They were at a legal processing place getting the help they needed to get to a sponsor and to follow the rules they are under. They have all the legal rights. And they were then scammed and taken to a different place and dropped off far from a processing center and those services they were promised were not there. But thankfully first the people of Martha’s Vineyard stepped up and the state of Mass did by transporting all the people to a processing point in the state, getting them set up which enabled them to do everything they were required to do. That was the insidious part of the right wing fuck them hard plan, but sending them that far away from a processing point they would not have done what they needed and then been deported because of that. Hugs
Those brochures, to me, make it certain that this hasn’t been an impulsive few moves, but rather has been planned. What a piece of work DeSantis is.
He was in my state last week, stumping for the Repub. gov. candidate here. Then that candidate gave a quote that ought to tell everyone exactly what he thinks of KS voters. I can only paraphrase it here, but the Repub candidate says something to the effect that KS needs to follow in DeSantis’s footsteps. Interesting, yes? Brownback said that about then-TX gov. Rick Perry when Brownback was running for KS gov. I hope people are paying attention to this in all our states. It’s happening at more than one level in every state.
Hello Ali. Yes a good point. The right wants to spread their sick hateful ideology like a virus around the entire country and then the world. Yes the thing the right wing media is desperate to convince their followers is that these are people here illegally trying to invade the country. These are people who are following the law. The law allows them to cross the border and then turn themselves in and ask for asylum, be processed and released with a hearing date and check in times with authorities. All normally done with no issues until trump and Stephen Miller who did not want them to even get into the country so they started the stay in Mexico policy which is clearly against US law and the treaties we are a party to. That is what the right is meaning when they scream that Biden has created open borders, that he has gone back to following the law and letting these processed people stay in the country. And that was normal until these really racist people decided that all brown / non-white people should be bared from the country. Because if you look at the stay in Mexico policy it was designed so the people never got back into the US for their hearings or had the chance to argue for their right to asylum. It was designed to lock these people out of the country no matter what. And we all know why. Racism, the maga want a white ethno state. Hugs
And it’s been pointed out at least a few times that DeSantis flew them out something like 3 days before their scheduled hearings, and now they’re unlikely to be able to make it there, though no doubt social services are making calls to fix that. Still, it is the same crap Trump-Miller move, preventing them from having their hearings. And, yes, that’s not only against any human decency, it’s against the law. I guess we’ll see how it shakes out. At least TX law enforcement are looking at that, which is also interesting.
Scottie's Playtime 
DeSantis has been adamant that the migrants were not misled. — OF COURSE this is what he would say!! But if a person has any brains at all, they would know these people are going to believe anything they’re told since they want so very badly to become part of the U.S.
It’s disgusting that these power/money-hungry politicians are being “allowed” to play with people’s lives!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Nan. Yes and not just the democrats are noticing this. Other normally non political groups are also keyed in on it. The DOJ is looking into human trafficking. This is a serious issue. See these were not illegal non-documented people, they were people who had turned themselves in for asylum and had been processed. They are and were legally in the US at this point. They were at a legal processing place getting the help they needed to get to a sponsor and to follow the rules they are under. They have all the legal rights. And they were then scammed and taken to a different place and dropped off far from a processing center and those services they were promised were not there. But thankfully first the people of Martha’s Vineyard stepped up and the state of Mass did by transporting all the people to a processing point in the state, getting them set up which enabled them to do everything they were required to do. That was the insidious part of the right wing fuck them hard plan, but sending them that far away from a processing point they would not have done what they needed and then been deported because of that. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those brochures, to me, make it certain that this hasn’t been an impulsive few moves, but rather has been planned. What a piece of work DeSantis is.
He was in my state last week, stumping for the Repub. gov. candidate here. Then that candidate gave a quote that ought to tell everyone exactly what he thinks of KS voters. I can only paraphrase it here, but the Repub candidate says something to the effect that KS needs to follow in DeSantis’s footsteps. Interesting, yes? Brownback said that about then-TX gov. Rick Perry when Brownback was running for KS gov. I hope people are paying attention to this in all our states. It’s happening at more than one level in every state.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Ali. Yes a good point. The right wants to spread their sick hateful ideology like a virus around the entire country and then the world. Yes the thing the right wing media is desperate to convince their followers is that these are people here illegally trying to invade the country. These are people who are following the law. The law allows them to cross the border and then turn themselves in and ask for asylum, be processed and released with a hearing date and check in times with authorities. All normally done with no issues until trump and Stephen Miller who did not want them to even get into the country so they started the stay in Mexico policy which is clearly against US law and the treaties we are a party to. That is what the right is meaning when they scream that Biden has created open borders, that he has gone back to following the law and letting these processed people stay in the country. And that was normal until these really racist people decided that all brown / non-white people should be bared from the country. Because if you look at the stay in Mexico policy it was designed so the people never got back into the US for their hearings or had the chance to argue for their right to asylum. It was designed to lock these people out of the country no matter what. And we all know why. Racism, the maga want a white ethno state. Hugs
LikeLiked by 1 person
And it’s been pointed out at least a few times that DeSantis flew them out something like 3 days before their scheduled hearings, and now they’re unlikely to be able to make it there, though no doubt social services are making calls to fix that. Still, it is the same crap Trump-Miller move, preventing them from having their hearings. And, yes, that’s not only against any human decency, it’s against the law. I guess we’ll see how it shakes out. At least TX law enforcement are looking at that, which is also interesting.
LikeLiked by 1 person