The Florida gov. Ron DeSantis case at the southern border revisited: a lawyer’s dilemma for illegal immigrants in the state
He was asked by her to help her find other migrants like him. She never mentioned that she was working for the Florida government, and that made him feel betrayed. He said that he was also lied to. “If I had known, I would not have gotten involved.” All he was told, he said, was that “she wanted to help people head up north.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Fewer than five months after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration flew about 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. – a move that cost the state around $1.5 million and is the subject of legal challenges – the Republican supermajority in the legislature has granted the administration another $10 million to transport migrants from other states.
The goal for both governors was the same: to draw attention to the large number of unauthorized migrants coming into the country at the southern border and force Democrats to deal with them.
Flying to Martha’s Vineyard: A Flying Immigration Refugee Program in the Florida House of Deputies and an Apparent Immigration Detector
In the case of the flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Florida state records show that an airline charter company, Vertol Systems, was paid $615,000 on Sept. 8 and $950,000 less than two weeks later. The first payment was for project 1 and the second was for project two and three. So far, Florida officials have acknowledged only the initial flights and have not spoken of plans for others.
A small portion of the state’s budget that was set aside for transportation in the last budget was used to create a program to fly migrants.
The Republicans say the intent is for people who cross into border states such as Texas and then want to relocate to Florida to be offered flights elsewhere.
The legislation contains no specifics on how state contractors would identify migrants, provide information to them about their destinations or whether the state would coordinate with officials in cities where immigrants are transported. “It shows you how this is all just a mere political stunt,” says immigration attorney Ira Kurzban, who is based in Miami.
Kurzban, who has practiced immigration law for decades, says he thinks the program violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents state and local governments from interfering in federal law.
The measure gives the state Division of Emergency Management, which is overseen by the governor, rule-making authority to transport “inspected unauthorized aliens,” a term not found in the Immigration and Nationality Act, according to Kurzban.
Under immigration law, paroled migrants must appear before a judge for a hearing. Francisco Symphorien-Saavedra, an immigration attorney based in Orlando, Fla., says that moving asylum seekers away from the jurisdiction where they have a scheduled hearing could disrupt that process. “To what extent is the state of Florida going to provide advanced notice to customs officials that these people are moving?”
Democrats tried change the bill to ensure migrants are voluntarily relocated and informed about where they’re going, how relocation could affect their immigration case and what’s waiting for them when they arrive at the destination. The word “voluntary” doesn’t appear in the bill, even though Republicans have said that they’ll only move immigrants who agree to relocate.
“Migrants are human beings and are deserving of respect and dignity, they can’t give permission or consent if they don’t understand what they’re being asked,” said state Rep. Jennifer “Rita” Harris, a Democrat from Orlando, speaking on the House floor Thursday.
Proposal for a Reply to a Motion by DeSantis on Immigration Law ‘Censored’ by a Republican State Senator
The program would become a money-making operation to people associated with political offices if the amendment is not filed, said Rep. Anna Eskamani. This already happened and it’s a needed amendment.
“We can just sit here and do nothing about it, or we can actually stand up and say ‘whatever tools we have at our disposal, we are going to use,’ ” DeSantis said last week.
And he defines success as getting the federal government to do more to reduce the number of immigrants crossing the U.S. border. The federal government needs to get their act together and solve this problem if we are going to show people that we are serious.
One of the state senators, from Miami-Dade County, filed a lawsuit over the move. His complaint says that the immigrants brought from Texas were not in compliance with state law because they had already been relocated to Florida.
Anna Eskamani of Fla. claimed the governor broke the law on the House floor. “And instead of fighting the law, he’s changing the law.”