About 50 people sent to island in 2022 in DeSantis’s ‘relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations’

A group of migrants who were sent to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022 by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, can sue the plane company that transported them, a federal judge has ruled.

In a ruling issued last Friday, the US district judge Allison Burroughs said that the migrants who were shuttled from Texas to the wealthy liberal island in Massachusetts can proceed with their legal claims against Vertol Systems, the plane company which was contracted by Florida to carry out the flights.

The 77-page ruling, which also named DeSantis, Florida’s transportation secretary, Jared Perdue, and other state officials as defendants, said that the Venezuelan migrants and the immigrant rights group Alianza Americas “sufficiently alleged” multiple claims including “civil rights conspiracy” and “civil conspiracy”.

  • will_a113@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    Nothin says “Welcome to America!” like being kidnapped by a wannabe dictator and then filing a lawsuit against on of their conspirators.

    • d00phy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Specifically the part about suing one of the conspirators instead of the actual guy in power who did the thing.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        From OP’s summary text, emphasis added:

        The 77-page ruling, which also named DeSantis, Florida’s transportation secretary, Jared Perdue, and other state officials as defendants

        I understand not clicking through to read the article, but c’mon now, is the summary too much to ask?

        • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Pretty sure the courts in Florida have also already ruled that what DeSantis did (taking money that was ringfenced for dealing with migrants in Florida and paying his friend’s charter airline to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts) was illegal and a misappropriation of taxpayer funds.

      • HeadfullofSoup@kbin.earth
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        8 months ago

        Still if people/company that conspire with him start to get sue they might stop helping him real fast rightwing are not known for their courage or loyalty once shit begin hitting the fan

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Maybe if DeSantis (and Abbott) make the USA a shitty enough place to live, people will stop wanting to go there?

    • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      It’s the migrants suing, not the residents of Martha’s Vineyard who did their best to treat the unannounced visitors well.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I think its more that the martha’s vineyard people have a disproportionate amount of law backgrounds and have informed the migrants of their rights. I havent read anything suggesting anyone rich was inconvenienced.

      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        8 months ago

        I mean, the island is disproportionately rich, and doesn’t have a lot of infrastructure, so flying migrants into a tiny local airport in an area filled with snow birds’ houses and summer tourists could be considered “incoveniencing the rich” simply by the island having to help the migrants.

        For example, there’s a single hospital on the island. 50 migrants who need to be checked out to make sure that they’re okay would be a strain on the medical infrastructure there if something else were to happen on the island.

        It’s why DeSantis chose Martha’s Vineyard. To piss off a bunch of wealthy liberals by having to deal with what he considers a bunch of “dirty migrants.” Little did he know, people in Massachusetts actually care about helping people like them.

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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      8 months ago

      Okay but then why not sue the people who are responsible, not the transportation company. Unless they specifically mistreated them in some way, they just did the job they were paid for.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Transport company should know it’s illegal to transport these people over state lines like they did. Knowing laws like what you can and cannot transfer over state lines is what logistics companies are for.

        Source: I work in logistics. “I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to haul that in this place” is not a valid defense.

        But yeah they should be able to sue Abbot and DeSantis and shit as well

    • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 months ago

      Yes. US immigration currently has the lowest maximum number of permits in the history of the country, set at, I think, 3,000 per year under Trump. I might be misremembering an extra zero there, because at first I wanted to say 300. There are tens of thousands of people at the border trying to get into the country, many desperate enough to enter illegally.

      This specifically was DeSantis being upset at a bunch of liberal states declaring themselves “sanctuary states” that wouldn’t deport people, so he sent this group by plane to an island of wealthy liberals to be spiteful and hoped it would piss off the rich. It did not. But they, or the state, happily told them their rights and that they could sue after getting them housed.

      I think Texas did something similar where they sent a bunch of migrants by bus to another sanctuary state?

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        There are ways to legally enter the US without being an immigrant. I appreciate your insight into immigration but I was asking if these people were actually “illegal”

        • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 months ago

          You know, when I wrote that, I was like 90% sure, but the more I think about it, the less sure I am.

          I live not too far from Martha’s Vineyard, so while I’m not intimately familiar with the situation, it was close enough to be “local news”, and thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the group referred to as anything other than just “migrants.” We’re very familiar with migrant workers here, as they make up a large potion of the summer workforce for tourist season (I think mostly from the Dominican Republic?), and it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that they were here legally on work visas or something. Though it’s not an Operation Wetback situation, I wouldn’t be shocked if those people considered any kind migrant worker/other visa holder as “illegals”.