DeSantis news - live: Migrant flight funding revealed as Florida governor’s polls surge

A group of 48 mostly Venezeulan migrants who the state of Florida transported in a surprise flight to Martha’s Vineyard last week have sued governor Ron DeSantis for the “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme.”

The class- action lawsuit comes as at least two law enforcement agencies are also investigating the actions of Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott for potential illegality.

A new report has revelaed the funding for Mr DeSantis’s migrant flights. The contractor hired by the governor is a longtime GOP donor.

Meanwhile, a plane reportedly full of asylum-seekers heading from Texas to Delaware so far hasn’t materialised, even as officials there worried they’d be the latest to be surprised with Florida’s highly controversial scheme of flying migrants unannounced to liberal jurisdictions.

Governor DeSantis and his aides have defended sending migrants to Democratic-leading states and cities in protest of what they characterise as the president’s “open border” policy.

Key points

• DeSantis hit with class action suit

• Six unanswered questions about Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights

• Migrants on the Martha’s Vineyard flight weren’t in US ‘illegally,’ despite DeSantis claims

• Texas sheriff announces investigation into DeSantis flights

• Jared Kushner condemns migrant flights organised by DeSantis

More than $1m in Florida funding steered to GOP donor amid migrants controversy

07:00 , John Bowden

A contractor owned by a Republican donor is seeing a massive windfall thanks to Ron DeSantis’s efforts to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts, and to other Democratic strongholds.

New analyses of state records indicate that more than $1m in funding for the flights was given to the company as it carries out Mr DeSantis’s efforts to embarrass the Biden White House.

Read more from Alex Woodward in The Independent:

Ron DeSantis chartered migrant flights from GOP donor, report finds

Abbott and DeSantis promise more migrant flights

05:00 , John Bowden

The GOP governors of Florida and Texas have shown no signs of letting up in their campaign to embarass the Biden administration by organising flights of migrants to liberal-controlled cities. The plan has been roundly criticised for supposedly deceptive practices and the overall legality of the process.

“There’s also going to be buses, and there will likely be more flights,” Mr DeSantis said on Friday. “The Legislature gave me $12 million. We’re going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we’re protecting the people of the state of Florida.”

Mr Abbott, whose “Operation Lone Star” has bused more than 10,000 migrants into liberal cities across the country, has also promised more of the same.

“Texas will continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, DC until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border,” he said last week in a statement.

Read more from Josh Marcus:

Latest migrant flight reportedly heading to Biden’s summer home

GOP's hard-line tactics on migrants refocus midterm debate

04:00 , John Bowden

Ron DeSantis and other Republicans are working overtime to refocus the midterms on the issue of immigration as their party faces the unfavourable prospect of voters casting their ballots amid unprecedented criminal investigations into Donald Trump as well as the GOP’s new campaign to restrict abortion rights nationwide.

“It will be a big issue in the elections, I can tell you that,” Mr DeSantis vowed on Tuesday. “It’s already made more of an impact than anyone thought it could possibly make. But we’re going to continue to make more of an impact.”

Read more in The Independent:

GOP's hard-line tactics on migrants refocus midterm debate

White House preparing for DeSantis migrant flights to Delaware as state agencies ready response

03:00 , John Bowden

The White House says it is taking over the task of coordinating with state agencies to prepare for the arrivals of groups of migrants organised by the governors of Florida and Texas after those Republicans refused to communicated with local governments or aid groups at all.

“We are coordinating closely with state officials and local service providers who are prepared to welcome these families in an orderly manner as they pursue their asylum claims,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Read more about the administration’s efforts from Alex Woodward:

White House preparing for DeSantis migrant flights to Delaware

Jared Kushner: DeSantis using migrants as ‘political pawns'

02:00 , John Bowden

Ron DeSantis’s use of state funding to transport migrants thousands of miles away from Texas all the way to Massachusetts appears to be too much for even Jared Kushner, a top adviser (and son-in-law) of former President Donald Trump.

He joined the ranks of those describing the governor’s efforts as dehumanising in an interview with Fox News.

“I personally watch what's happening, and it's very hard to see at the southern border, I also—we have to remember that these are human beings, they're people, so seeing them being used as political pawns one way or the other is very troubling to me,” he said.

Read more:

Jared Kushner condemns DeSantis’s migrant flights

Texas congressman rips DeSantis and Abbott

01:00 , John Bowden

Rep Joaquin Castro furiously condemned the governors of Texas and Florida this week for what he called a hypocritical stance towards left-leaning governments in Central/South America and the migrants who have fled them in recent years.

"DeSantis, Abbott etc are constantly beating up on places like Cuba and Venezuela because the leaders are so repressive and make the countries dangerous for people, and yet when people try to flee, they treat them like shit,” argued the congressman.

Jon Stewart blasts DeSantis over ‘d***ish’ migrant flights

Thursday 22 September 2022 00:00 , John Bowden

Former Comedy Central star Jon Stewart sounded off against Ron DeSantis over the latter’s scheme to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts, using funding meant to help the people of Florida.

“This stunt did exactly what he wanted it to do, which is jumped his profile, made him a hero amongst those, for whom d***ishness is one of those sole characteristics that they’re looking for in their leaders,” said the liberal comedian.

Read more about his remarks from Graig Graziosi:

Jon Stewart blasts DeSantis over ‘d***ish’ migrant flights

Marco Rubio spreads misinformation about migrants

Wednesday 21 September 2022 23:31 , John Bowden

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is joining the list of Republicans spreading lies about migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard as the backlash against the GOP-led effort grows.

Mr Rubio went on Fox News to claim, falsely, that the migrants suing the governor of Florida over the scheme were “not even here legally”.

But, of course, that isn’t true. The migrants in question are asylum-seekers, which is a longstanding legal method of applying for residence in the United States.

Read more at Fox News:

Greg Abbott designates drug cartels as ‘terrorist’ groups

Wednesday 21 September 2022 23:02 , John Bowden

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed an executive order aimed at fighting international narcotics cartels headquartered in Mexico and elsewhere in Central/South America.

The order, signed by Mr Abbott on Wednesday, officially designates such groups as “terrorist” organisations and redirects local law enforcement agencies to redouble their efforts aimed at thwarting the activities of those groups in Texas.

In actuality, the order will have little effect on how law enforcement treats such investigations.

Read more of his order here:

Marjorie Taylor Greene launches 10-minute rant about borders when being asked to help Ukraine

Wednesday 21 September 2022 22:35 , John Bowden

Marjorie Taylor Greene has filmed a 10-minute rant complaining that she was being asked to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

And as usual, she’s claiming that Joe Biden does not care about the US borders amid historic levels of migration.

“There is a country’s border that he (Biden) cares about and it is not this country’s border, it is Ukraine’s border,” the congresswoman charged.

Read more from The Independent’s Graeme Massie:

Marjorie Taylor Greene complains about being asked to help Ukraine in 10-minute rant

Congresswoman responds to report that DeSantis used GOP donor for migrant flights: ‘OF COURSE'

Wednesday 21 September 2022 20:15 , John Bowden

Rep Ilhan Omar of Minnesota had a withering response to a report on Wednesday from The Intercept detailing that the contractor hired by Ron DeSantis for his scheme to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard is a longtime GOP donor.

“Of COURSE this was gonna turn out to be the case. These are Republicans. It’s not enough to be cruel, violent, and stupid. Gotta be corrupt while they’re at it, too!”

Marco Rubio fumes that asylum seekers can sue DeSantis

Wednesday 21 September 2022 19:52 , John Bowden

Florida’s senior US senator, Marco Rubio, is furious over an announcement that dozens of asylum-seekers who say they were lured onto flights for Massachusetts by officials working for Ron DeSantis will be suing the governor.

The migrants say that the governor’s workers used deceptive practices and promised them aid that never materialised.

“They have lawyers representing them in court, suing the American government … It angers me, and it should anger everybody,” he argued.

Mr DeSantis’s scheme is now being investigated by law enforcement and faces a civil court battle announced on Tuesday as well.

Contractor who got hundreds of thousands in Florida state funding is GOP donor

Wednesday 21 September 2022 19:28 , John Bowden

The contractor who was paid more than a half million dollars to transport migrants from Texas to Massachusetts at the behest of Florida’s governor is a supporter of the governor who has donated to GOP candidates.

The donations were uncovered by The Intercept and add a new layer to Ron DeSantis’s use of state funds for a program that is increasingly being denounced as a political and potentially illegal stunt.

Read more at The Intercept:

Billboard truck displaying feed of migrants’ press conference follows DeSantis

Wednesday 21 September 2022 18:25 , John Bowden

A Democratic activist has chartered a billboard truck to follow Ron DeSantis and display video footage of attorneys for migrant asylum-seekers detailing allegations against him that are part of a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday.

DeSantis admits Florida not seeing ‘mass movements’ of migrants

Wednesday 21 September 2022 18:00 , John Bowden

With pressure growing to explain why he used state funds to bus migrants across the United States from Texas to Massachusetts, Florida’s governor is now admitting that mass “caravans” or groups of migrants are simply not a problem in his state.

Mr DeSantis and other conservatives have long fearmongered over the arrival of large groups of migrants at the southern border and have claimed that the busing efforts are necessary to reduce the strain on their respective states’ systems.

The governor made the admission at a press conference this week.

Watch below:

Texas sheriff faces ‘influx’ of threats for investigating DeSantis sending migrant flights to northeast

Wednesday 21 September 2022 17:36 , John Bowden

Add a Texas sheriff’s department to the list of law enforcement agencies threatened with violence by conservatives after announcing action to criminally investigate their political leaders.

The Bexar County sheriff’s office says that their agency has received a surge of calls as well as “numerous” threats towards department personnel in the wake of its announcement of an investigation into Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s efforts to bus migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard using state funds and supposedly via the use of deceptive practices.

The situation follows a rise in similar threats to FBI officials after the agency’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.

Read more from Gino Spocchia in The Independent:

Texas sheriff threatened for investigating DeSantis’s migrant flights

Migrants and civil rights attorneys file federal lawsuit against DeSantis administration

Wednesday 21 September 2022 17:00 , John Bowden

Ron DeSantis is now facing a class-action lawsuit over what a group of 50 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, described as a “fraudulent” scheme to lure them onto buses bound for Martha’s Vineyard.

The lawsuit alleges the governor and members of his administration targeted immigrants who were recently released from shelters with false promises of job opportunities, education and financial assistance before they landed on the island with only volunteered support from local groups and emergency assistance from state agencies.

Read more from Alex Woodward in The Independent:

Migrants and civil rights groups file federal lawsuit against DeSantis administration

DeSantis’s team lured hungry migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift cards, lawsuit says

Wednesday 21 September 2022 16:21 , John Bowden

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s team lured migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift certificates to gain their trust as part of a “scheme” to fly them to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas, according to a new federal lawsuit.

The resistance to the scheme launched by Mr DeSantis and his GOP colleague in Texas, Greg Abbott, is growing as the two have been accused of deceptive practices.

The move has been attacked by the White House as an “illegal” and political stunt.

Read more from Sravasti Dasgupta in The Independent:

Ron DeSantis’s team lured migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift cards, lawsuit says

False promises, a legal investigation and a mystery woman: Unanswered questions about Ron DeSantis's migrant flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 15:49 , John Bowden

Two planes with 48 migrants, most of whom fled Venezuela in the wake of that country’s political and economic collapse, landed unannounced on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts on 14 September.

Days later, officials in Delaware were anticipating another Texas flight bound for the coast, roughly 20 miles from President Joe Biden’s beach home. Both were organised by Florida’s governor, the firebrand conservative Ron DeSantis, who is vying to raise his national profile ahead of an expected 2024 presidential run.

But much remains unclear about the governor’s plan, including how Florida funds are paying for it, who is working with the state to put migrants on planes, and what will happen next to migrants and their families seeking asylum in the US.

Alex Woodward reports for The Independent:

Six unanswered questions about Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights

Sheriffs investigating migrant flights say they’re receiving violent threats

Wednesday 21 September 2022 15:23 , John Bowden

Law enforcement agencies investigating Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott over their twin schemes to bus migrants around the country say they are now receiving violent threats from conservatives.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Bexar County Sheriff’s office told VICE News that “there have been numerous threats, an influx of calls to our dispatch and administrative offices, along with hateful emails received” since the announcement of that county’s investigation.

“Additionally, as in any instance when our office receives threats precautionary measures will be made for safety of all personnel,” they said.

Read more at Vice:

Jared Kushner condemns DeSantis’s migrant flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 15:02 , John Bowden

Ex-President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner said in an interview that he was “very troubled” by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flying migrants from the US-Mexico border to Martha’s Vineyard.

He made the comments on Fox News, where many conservatives are likely to hear his opposition to the plan that has won Mr DeSantis praise from his fans and condemnation from rights groups and humanitarian organisations.

“I personally watch what's happening, and it's very hard to see at the southern border, I also—we have to remember that these are human beings, they're people, so seeing them being used as political pawns one way or the other is very troubling to me,” Mr Kushner said.

Read more from The Independent’s Eric Garcia:

Jared Kushner condemns DeSantis’s migrant flights

New poll shows DeSantis leading Trump in hypothetical Florida primary

Wednesday 21 September 2022 14:39 , John Bowden

A new survey of voters in his home state suggests that Florida’s Ron DeSantis would win at least one state in a hypothetical GOP primary matchup against Donald Trump, were it to occur today.

Mr DeSantis’s lead over the ex-president comes as the former has enacted a plan to use state funds to bus migrants from Texas to Democrat-led jurisdictions in what appears to be an obviously political effort to embarass the Biden administration. The latter remains at Mar-a-Lago, in the same state, facing multiple criminal investigations.

Read the latest poll results at Axios:

Fact check: Ron DeSantis distorting immigration facts as he defends flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 14:27 , John Bowden

The govenors of Florida and Texas have roundly attacked the Biden administration as they continue their efforts to bus groups of migrants to Democrat-led areas, a scheme that has been denounced as a costly political stunt.

But in reality, the border under Joe Biden looks very similar to the border under the Trump administration; and that’s not the only mistruth that has been floating around in recent days.

Governors of the two states are now also conflating asylum-seekers with illegal migration — a dangerous development that stems from the right-wing belief that America should not offer asylum to refugees and should favour natural-born citizens.

Read more from The Independent about the real situation behind the bluster:

Fact check: Ron DeSantis distorting immigration facts as he defends flights

DeSantis’s team lured hungry migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift cards, lawsuit says

Wednesday 21 September 2022 10:00 , Shweta Sharma

Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s team lured migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift certificates to gain their trust as part of a “scheme” to fly them to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas, a new federal lawsuit has alleged.

The lawsuit has been filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights, Boston, on behalf of a class of affected immigrants, including those stranded in Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of migrant-led organisations supporting immigrants.

The Independent’s Sravasti Dasgupta reports.

Ron DeSantis’s team lured migrants with $10 McDonald’s gift cards, lawsuit says

Fact check: Ron DeSantis distorting immigration facts as he defends flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 09:00 , Josh Marcus

How historic is the current border situation?

Is Joe Biden creating an “open border” that’s responsible for these trends?

And were the migrants on the controversial, Florida-funded Martha’s Vineyard flight in the US illegally?

Find out in our fact check.

Fact check: Ron DeSantis distorting immigration facts as he defends flights

Biden responds to rumoured migrant flight to Delaware with a joke

Wednesday 21 September 2022 07:59 , Josh Marcus

President Joe Biden responded to reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has organised another flight to send migrants to the northeast, this time sending a plane to Delaware near the US president’s beach home.

In unscripted remarks to reporters after speaking on campaign finance, Mr Biden goaded the Republican governor over the latest political stunt.

“He should come visit, we have a beautiful shoreline,” Mr Biden told reporters on Tuesday when asked to respond to Mr DeSantis’s latest gambit.

More from our story:

Biden taunts DeSantis over reported migrant flight to Delaware

Reported Delaware flight of migrants sends officials scrambling

Wednesday 21 September 2022 07:15 , Josh Marcus

The White House is coordinating with state officials and aid groups preparing for the potential arrival of a plane with migrants sent from Texas to coastal Delaware near the beach home of President Joe Biden.

The flight, due to arrive on Tuesday afternoon, could mark the second flight within a week organised by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration to move people seeking asylum in San Antonio to northeastern towns.

“We are coordinating closely with state officials and local service providers who are prepared to welcome these families in an orderly manner as they pursue their asylum claims,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Get the full story.

White House preparing for DeSantis migrant flights to Delaware

GOP's hard-line tactics on migrants refocus midterm debate

Wednesday 21 September 2022 06:30 , Josh Marcus

They’ve delivered migrants on planes and buses to Washington, D.C., New York City — even Martha’s Vineyard. And the Republican governors of Florida and Texas may be just getting started.

Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas insist such dramatic steps are need to highlight a genuine crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of migrants stream into the country illegally each day. But weeks away from their own competitive reelections, friends and foes alike acknowledged that such hard-line tactics have effectively refocused November’s midterm elections — at least, temporarily — away from abortion rights and toward an issue more favorable to Republicans.

A defiant DeSantis on Tuesday blasted the Biden administration’s inaction on the Southern border and celebrated his own policies for making illegal immigration “a front-burner issue” ahead of the midterms.

Read more.

GOP's hard-line tactics on migrants refocus midterm debate

Legal pressure on DeSantis for migrant flights continues with lawsuit

Wednesday 21 September 2022 05:45 , Josh Marcus

Attorneys for a group of migrants who boarded unannounced flights to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who allegedly directed a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to transport a group of 50 people, including families with small children, as part of a political stunt.

The lawsuit alleges the governor and members of his administration targeted immigrants who were recently released from shelters with false promises of job opportunities, education and financial assistance before they landed on the island with only volunteered support from local groups and emergency assistance from state agencies.

Attorneys allege that the migrants were exploited for “political purposes” after arriving on the island last week.

Get all the details about the bombshell lawsuit.

Migrants and civil rights groups file federal lawsuit against DeSantis administration

Why both parties have failed to create a stable immigration system

Wednesday 21 September 2022 05:00 , Josh Marcus

Every few months, the right declares there’s a new “crisis” at the US-Mexico border. In reality, both parties have created an unstable US immigration system through decades of inaction.

Sadly, this piece from last summer is still relevant, as many of the false claims and feckless solutions regarding immigration are once again making the rounds in the political discourse.

What Trump and Biden both get wrong about the migration ‘crisis’ at the border

How a ‘false brochure’ helped lure migrants to Martha’s Vineyard flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 04:15 , Josh Marcus

Before they boarded planes bound for Martha’s Vineyard, a group of about 50 migrants in San Antonio, Texas, were handed a trifold brochure titled “Massachusetts Refugee Benefits.”

A front cover included a photograph of a Massachusetts Department of Transportation highway sign reading “Massachusetts Welcomes You” above an illustration of the state.

On the back, printed in English and Spanish was the name and phone number and website for the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, a state agency that aids resettlement agencies and works with community groups to provide assistance to newly arrived refugees.

But the agency had nothing to do with the flier. The flier was mocked up to look like a government document, falsely suggesting that the group of mostly Venzeulan people seeking asylum in the US would be eligible for cash assistance, housing, food, job training, job interviews and other benefits.

Alex Woodward has the details.

Migrants were given brochures with false promises of aid. Who made them?

Were Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights illegal?

Wednesday 21 September 2022 03:25 , Josh Marcus

The Department of Justice has been tapped by California Governor Gavin Newsom to investigate whether Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s controversial decision to send two flights of migrants north would amount to “kidnapping”.

“I strongly urge the U.S. Department of Justice (US DOJ) to open an investigation into possible criminal or civil violations of federal law based on this alleged fraudulent scheme,” Gov Newsom wrote in a 15 September letter addressed to US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Johanna Chisholm has the story.

DeSantis could be charged with kidnap after moving migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

ICMYI: Texas sheriff to investigate Florida for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

Wednesday 21 September 2022 02:40 , Josh Marcus

A sheriff in Texas has opened an investigation into whether a group of migrants were “lured” on board last week’s flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts.

The flights, widely derided as a political stunt engineered by Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis against Democratic “sanctuary” policies, have faced international scrutiny following reports that migrants and their families were deceptively collected into planes out of state after seeking asylum in the US.

Get all the details.

Texas sheriff to investigate Florida for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

False promises, a legal investigation and a mystery woman: Unanswered questions about Ron DeSantis's migrant flights

Wednesday 21 September 2022 01:55 , Josh Marcus

Two planes with 48 migrants, most of whom fled Venezuela in the wake of that country’s political and economic collapse, landed unannounced on the island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts on 14 September.

But so much remains unclear about the migrants’ journey, how Florida officials are identifying and collecting migrants in other states as part of the Republican governor’s state-sanctioned plans to send them to Democratic-leading states and cities, and how funding earmarked for his scheme is paying for it from several states away.

Alex Woodward has this in-depth look at what we do and don’t know about the controversial flight scheme.

Six unanswered questions about Ron DeSantis’s migrant flights

Ron DeSantis admits immigration isn’t a big problem in Florida

Wednesday 21 September 2022 01:10 , Josh Marcus

Ron DeSantis has made himself the face of the anti-immigration movement with his migrant flights to Florida, but there’s something a bit strange about them.

Mass migration isn’t much of a factor in Florida, and the flights themselves began by picking up migrants in Texas, a state far more in contact with cross-border migration from Mexico.

“We’re not seeing mass movements of them into Florida,” Mr DeSantis said on Tuesday at an event, describing a slow trickle of migrants coming “in onesie-twosies” into the Sunshine State.

The data backs this up.

According to the most recent Border Patrol numbers, the border sector that includes Florida was about 400 times less busy than the ones in the Southwest.

Migrants on the Martha’s Vineyard flight weren’t in US ‘illegally,’ despite DeSantis claims

Wednesday 21 September 2022 00:50 , Josh Marcus

Ron DeSantis has falsely claimed the migrants his government sent on planes to liberal areas were criminals.

In fact, they were excercising rights protected under US and international law by seeking asylum in America.

As the news broke last week about Mr DeSantis’s migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, his communications directors defended the policy, saying it that it was a rightful use of state resources to "transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

However, the 48 migrants on the plane, many of them Venezuelans, were in the country legally.

As Alex Woodward notes in his great piece on the flights, they had already presented themselves to immigration authorities and were waiting on asylum proceedings.

After reaching the border, and turning themselves to authorities, migrants requesting asylum must undergo a “credible fear screening” to determine whether their return to their home countries could expose them to further persecution or threats. Following a screening, they are released while awaiting a hearing for their asylum case.

It was at this point, near San Antonio’s Migrant Resources Center, that the group of migrants targeted by people ostensibly working through Governor DeSantis’s operation were sent to Massachusetts.

Critics argue that it is the Florida governor himself who broke the law.

The migrants on the Martha’s Vineyard flight filed a class action lawsuit against the Republican on Tuesday, arguing that they were enticed onto the cross-country flights with false promises of work, housing support, and other services.

“Plaintiffs have led lives inflicted by violence, instability, insecurity, and abuse of trust by corrupt government officials that most Americans could hardly conceive of,” the suit reads.

“They fled to the United States in a desperate attempt to protect themselves and their families from gang, police, and state-sponsored violence and the oppression of political dissent. To put it simply, Plaintiffs, and the class of similarly situated individuals they seek to represent, are vulnerable in a way and to an extent that almost defies verbal description.”

Local officials in Texas are investigating whether Mr DeSantis’s scheme broke any laws.

Texas sheriff to investigate Florida for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

California governor Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, has argued it was tantamount to kidnapping and has urged the federal Department of Justice to investigate.

DeSantis could be charged with kidnap after moving migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

And here’s Alex’s piece for more information on the process.

Migrants were given brochures with false promises of aid. Who made them?

Does Joe Biden have an ‘open border’ policy? Not really.

Wednesday 21 September 2022 00:21 , Josh Marcus

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has blamed the Biden adminstration’s alleged “open border” policies for a migration “crisis” that requires flying migrants to other parts of the country just to give overwhelmed border towns a break.

“Biden can’t defend his policies of open borders,” Mr DeSantis said at an event on Tuesday. “It’s doing huge damage to our country.”

It’s a harrowing picture the Republican has painted, but it’s far from complete.

For one thing, the Biden administration’s border looks a lot like the one under the Trump administration.

President Biden, for example, is still buildingthe border wall along the US-Mexico border, a project that remained incomplete— “open” perhaps, to borrow Mr DeSantis’s phrase—at the end of the Trump adminsitration.

The Trump administration’s controversial Remain in Mexico programme, which forced asylum seekers to wait on the Mexico side of the border as their claims processed, was in place until this June.

And Mr Biden has continued using Mr Trump’s Title 42 order to massive effect. The policy, a supposed pandemic measure cooked up by arch immigration opponent Stephen Miller, reportedly over the protests of the CDC, allows immigration officials to refuse entry to asylum-seekers before they even enter immigration proceedings.

According to a Pew analysis, the Biden administration has already carried out the great majority of the roughly 2.2m Title 42 expulsions that have taken place since the policy went into effect.

Expulsions this year under the health rule, which the Biden administration renewed in August despite previous plans to abandon it, appear well on track to overcome the 1.07m conducted in 2021, according to Border Patrol stats.

Border officials also note that in addition to all the usual, nuanced drivers of immigration to the US political instability beyond American shores is a huge factor.

“Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border,” CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a recently released enforcement update.

And even during the Trump administration, harsh policies like Remain in Mexico and Title 42 weren’t deterring border crossers from trying their luck over and over again until they got into the US, analyses and the Border Patrol have concluded.

“There’s never going to be a point of militarization that the US can get the border to that would completely stop all these flows,” Jessica Bolter of the Migration Policy Institute told The Independent at the end of the Trump administration.

“The environmental and security push factors that are driving people to leave, as well as economic push factors, especially during and in the wake of the pandemic—there’s always going to be reasons to migrate.”

How ‘historic’ is the situation at the border? Here’s what the data says.

Tuesday 20 September 2022 23:58 , Josh Marcus

Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Texas governor Greg Abbott have both framed their highly controversial efforts to send migrants in planes and buses to liberal states as a way to raise awareness about the “historic” crisis at the US border. It’s a crisis, they say, that’s been caused by the Biden adminstration.

Indeed, a historic number of people have crossed the US-Mexico this year.

So far, in fiscal year 2022, more than 2.1m migrants have been encountered at the frontier line, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

That’s already more that 2021’s total, which just barely topped previous records from the 1980s and early 2000s, as the Pew Research Center noted in an analysis.

For what it’s worth, the record year of 2021 also included the final few months of the Trump administration, but you’re unlikely to hear much mention of that from partisans like Mr DeSantis and Mr Abbott.

As we’ll explore in a coming blog post, however, pinning these record numbers solely on Joe Biden hugely distorts the picture of what’s actually happening.

White House says Florida using migrants as ‘pawns’ to score points for DeSantis

Tuesday 20 September 2022 23:30 , Josh Marcus

The White House on Tuesday continued to criticise Florida governor Ron DeSantis for backing migrant flights sending asylum-seekers from Texas and Florida to liberal locales across the country.

“When you think about what’s going on in Venezuela, when you think about what’s going on in Nicaragua, when you think about what’s going on in Cuba – they are fleeing political persecution only to be used as a political pawn by the Florida governor,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday during a press briefing.

Watch her full remarks here via C-SPAN.

Both parties are to blame for the border ‘crisis'

Tuesday 20 September 2022 23:10 , Josh Marcus

Cries, especially from the GOP, of a “crisis” at the border are nothing new.

Whether its Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, or Greg Abbott, Republicans regularly use the border as an issue to whip up their base.

But is there really a “crisis” at the border?

Last year, as Donald Trump railed against a similar “crisis,” I wrote this look at how both parties have failed to pass any meaningful immigration reform in decades, resulting in a constant state of crisis that varies little from one administration to the next.

What Trump and Biden both get wrong about the migration ‘crisis’ at the border