Practically speaking, Gov. Ron DeSantis is a human trafficker.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is laughing off a criminal investigation over his human trafficking by apparently either staging – or duping the media with – another migrant drop-off.

This time the stunt destination isn’t the posh Martha’s Vineyard, the playground of mostly rich and famous Democrats.

The new landing spot is reportedly a small Delaware town where President Biden has a vacation home.

The stunt is just that – political bait for an already boiling electorate that sees no moral quandary in exploiting people fleeing the dictatorships of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

DeSantis is using this for maximum political effect

DeSantis chartered a plane – at expense to taxpayers of about $12,600 per migrant –but it hadn’t landed in Delaware at the time of this writing.

Did he have a change of heart, sensing political fallout? Doubt it. Did he hesitate over the Texas sheriff’s criminal investigation? Not a chance.

If anything, the Republican governor was probably taking his time pulling the strings of this puppet show for maximum attention.

Whether the latest flight makes it or not, DeSantis’ human trafficking to Martha's Vineyard is a depravity.

And Javier Salazar, the Texas sheriff of Bexar County, didn't hesitate to try do something about it.

A Texas sheriff is at least trying to stop him

Salazar on Monday opened a criminal investigation of DeSantis’ flights to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts – a moved hailed by pro-immigrant activists and some Democrats who also want to pursue civil inquiries into the flights.

“The Florida Governor’s continued use of deception, fraud and false promises to lure people, including children, onto planes from San Antonio for out-of-state destinations should be prohibited,’’ Rep. Joaquin Castro said on Twitter.

“I’m glad Bexar County has opened a criminal investigation into these actions. I suspect legal advocates will ultimately file civil suit against DeSantis, the State of Florida, and every other entity or company who knowingly participated in this deceptive human trafficking,” Castro said.

Stunt or statement? DeSantis flies migrants to Massachusetts

That’s all good, but DeSantis needs to be stopped now. Salazar at least had the guts to try to hold him legally accountable.

On Tuesday, lawyers presenting some of the migrants filed a class-action lawsuit against DeSantis and other state officials, alleging the whole thing was a “premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme centered on exploiting this vulnerability for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.”

While that plays out and other legal scholars look into the legality of DeSantis’ transports or human trafficking, Florida residents should lead the way in calling him out, especially the Republican Latinos who boast about caring for people under totalitarian regimes.

What DeSantis did should be criminal

DeSantis used false pretenses to lure the 48 migrants to the planes that took them to Martha’s Vineyard. That should be criminal.

Most of them had fled Venezuela with hopes of reaching Florida, home to many compatriots. Instead of reaching their destination, DeSantis dumped them on Martha’s Vineyard just to make a political point.

Promising migrants jobs to lure them onto planes makes them crime victims, Tallahassee-based immigration attorney Elizabeth Ricci suggested to NPR.

The 48 migrants were quickly whisked to a military base where they have access to lawyers and are likely to get all the legal help they need to stay in the U.S.

That doesn’t excuse DeSantis.

How are Abbott, Ducey not human traffickers?

In fact, it potentially makes him a human trafficker – the exact thing he and fellow Republican Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona criticize.

DeSantis’ stunt is an escalation of the Republican war against Democrats over border security and immigration – and they’re using migrants as weapons in that war.

Abbott has bussed more than 10,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities and dropped them on the sidewalks to fend for themselves, while Ducey has bussed nearly 2,000. All at taxpayers’ expense.

The governors say they aren’t forcing anyone onto the buses, or onto the planes in DeSantis’ case.

That may be technically correct, but deceiving or lying to poor refugees fleeing the brutality of dictators is morally reprehensible. Are these governors really any better than the “coyotes,” the human traffickers they often criticize?

Speak up, Latinos. This is reprehensible

Americans in general and Latinos in Florida in particular should be disgusted with these stunts. Florida is a Republican stronghold where Cubans and Venezuelans and other Latinos wield a lot of power.

Notably, most of the asylum seekers showing up now at the U.S.-Mexico border are from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

DeSantis and the rest of Republican clan don’t care about the plight of these refugees. All they want is to use them as human weapons to score political points in this year’s midterm election.

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who's usually first in line to lash out at Venezuela’s and Cuba’s brutality, is crickets now. His silence over DeSantis’ stunt using mostly Venezuelans is deafening.

What’s worse than that?

That too many ordinary Americans remain complicit or hail the use of asylum seekers as political pawns – even those fleeing the brutality of dictators America condemns.

Elvia Díaz is the editorial page editor for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gov. Ron DeSantis is a human trafficker, practically speaking