Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis garnered widespread criticism after his administration organized a journey taking dozens of vulnerable migrants to a community in Massachusetts, without advance notice to area residents or officials.
Now, he’s facing another lawsuit — this time with the involvement of the Southern Poverty Law Center — over the flights, with plaintiffs hoping for a court order shutting down the endeavor. DeSantis drew from a pool of legislatively approved funds with millions remaining, suggesting there could be more trips moving migrants to far-flung locales without prior accommodations made for their care. Other Republican governors, including Arizona’s Doug Ducey and Greg Abbott of Texas, have engaged in similar moves, and Abbott’s team recently added Philadelphia to the list of cities where his administration was sending migrants. Those joining these trips are doing so voluntarily, but there are serious questions about whether they’ve been deceived with false promises of assistance with needs like housing and employment. After the Texas trips to Philly started, the local district attorney pledged anyone deceiving these people would be held accountable.
It seems as though many of those targeted by the governors’ teams in hopes of bulking up the trips are legally allowed to be in the country as their asylum claims are processed. The southern border is not “open,” and any claim to the contrary is mindbogglingly ridiculous. Hundreds of thousands have been turned away during Biden’s presidency, and there is no indication of any plan for some kind of total amnesty. Those involved in the new lawsuit against DeSantis argue he is intruding on federal authority, where the final say on immigration policy rests. The case also argues that DeSantis’s actions are discriminatory, representing “state-sponsored harassment of immigrants based on race, color, and national origin.” Those on the DeSantis trip were picked up in Texas, and a signed consent form released by the Florida governor’s own team didn’t even include any reference by name in the Spanish translation on the page to the state that proved to be the final destination.
“The Constitution is clear — the sole and exclusive power to regulate immigration policy is granted to the federal government, not the states,” attorney Paul Chavez at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project said this week. “The scheme by Gov. DeSantis and the state of Florida to use taxpayer funds for the ‘relocation’ of ‘unauthorized aliens’ is a blatant and unlawful attempt to harass immigrants at the state level.” There have also been questions about the legality of the flights under Florida law because the trip didn’t originate in the state, and at the federal level, the inspector general responsible for the Treasury Department indicated they would be looking into whether the usage of interest on federal COVID-19 relief funds was allowed.
