"A fake brochure promising eight months cash assistance, food, job training/placement, help with housing + more was given to migrants who were lured by
@GovRonDeSantis
into boarding a flight to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts." --Marisa Kabas
Popular Information has obtained documentary evidence that migrants from Venezuela were provided with false information to convince them to board flights chartered by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). The documents suggest that the flights were not just a callous political stunt but potentially a crime.
When you use lies to make people get on a bus or plane, isn't that called human trafficking? Isn't that a felony?
15 comments:
I applaud Mass for doing all this for border crossers. These people need assistance and they cannot get it in Texas because there are 2 million of them and Eagle Pass is a small town. Ms. Shaw I understand why you are proud of your state because those are very kind gestures.
Here's some good commentary on the conditions that make what happened to these immigrants possible. From Mona Charon of the Bulwark...
"...today’s GOP is in the grip of populists who portray desperate asylum seekers as hostile invaders. The Democrats, in this telling, are part of a conspiracy to flood the nation with immigrants who will “replace” the current dominant groups and reliably vote Democrat forever. (It’s ironic that Republicans are actually increasing their share of the Hispanic vote.)
Many on the right portray illegal immigrants as criminals who are “breaking into our house” and deserve to be treated as such. So a word about the law. Under U.S. statutes, if a migrant comes into this country, turns himself in to a border guard or other authority, and asks for political asylum, he is entitled to a hearing. Asylum seekers are not “illegal” immigrants. They are simply following the law we enacted. There are some kinds of attempted entry that are illegal."
Want to understand the problem a little more? Read this article, fully sourced with links, footnotes and more.
It answers the question "Why Don't They Just get in Line" in very easy to understand terms. It's a long read and I know most of the conservatives here won't bother, but it is an important read for anyone wanting to truly understand the problem of ongoing US immigration policy.
skud I'm not sure if you're being deliberately obtuse or not. But the fact is that those brochures, listing all the services and "gestures," are FAKE and were NOT printed by Massachusetts. It's a deliberate FRAUD on the part of the DeSantis folks who printed it. The flag on the brochure is NOT the state flag of Massachusetts.
Do you condone this sort of criminal deception to make a point? Should everyone who needs to make political points engage in criminal actions and fraud against asylum seekers? I thought Conservatives believed in LAW and ORDER. This DeSantis stunt is neither lawful nor orderly.
"The Fake Pamphlet Given to Martha’s Vineyard Migrants Is Very Funny and Also Possibly Criminal Evidence
The “Massachusetts state flag” pictured on the DeSantis administration flyer is a pretend one.
Putting aside the issue of whether the migrants were actually received poorly (numerous donations of food and clothing were reported), the contradictory symbolism of conservative politicians characterizing individuals fleeing Venezuela as resource-sponging nuisances when they usually tout the U.S. as a sanctuary for victims of Latin American leftism, and the subject of which political party benefits more from the “optics” of the story, one question that remains is whether DeSantis’ administration behaved illegally when it convinced the migrants in question to leave the shelter where they were staying in Texas. A great deal of MAGA attention is paid to the imaginary human trafficking featured in QAnon conspiracy theories; it’d be a little ironic if DeSantis did the real thing in the process of trying to impress primary voters."
SOURCE
PS. The Trump administration had the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary branch of government for 2 full years and did NOTHING on immigration reform.
Dave M. Thank you for that link.
I don't know why people continue to call asylum seekers illegal. Unless it's because they're too dense to understand the difference between asylum seekers and those who cross the border illegally.
PS. I've been watching Ken Burns's series on the Holocaust, and one part of it showed a shipload of asylum seeking Jewish people who were trying to escape the Nazis -- they were trying to save their lives and the lives of their children. The U.S. wasn't the only country who found ways to turn them away. Many other countries in the western hemisphere did the same.
A very shameful time in our history.
I'd like to ask skud and any other conservative who reads this blog what's the difference between the Jewish asylum seekers fleeing Nazi Germany and the Venezuelans fleeing Communist Venezuela? Or the Cubans fleeing Castro's Communism? Why do they take pleasure in seeing the Venezuelans being deceived and sent to a non-sanctuary island?
IMO, DeSantis is as lacking in humanity as Trump is. There is no honor in using desperate people as pawns to make a political point. DeSantis's stunt did NOT solve the problem and only added to the difficult situation of the asylum seekers. I hope they sue the beejeebus out of DeSantis and everyone involved in the fraud.
Shaw... many continue to call them illegal because it serves their purpose and most ppl simply don't care to invest the time needed to really understand the issues, or think hard about real solutions.
Aside from the folks who are just cruel reactionists.
Jennifer Rubin, Conservative writer:
"The mainstream media have put a greater focus on whether laws might have been broken and what legal recourse these migrants might have. CNN reports “the migrants’ attorneys said that brochures given to their clients were ‘highly misleading’ and ‘used to entice (their) clients to travel under the guise that (resettlement) support was available to them. The brochure lists refugee services, including cash and housing assistance, clothing, transportation to job interviews, job training and assistance registering children for school, among other resources.”
But whether state or federal laws were broken or taxpayer money misused, these political stunts will be as much a stain on our nation as the previous administration’s child separation policy. If this were a foreign country, the media might treat this as a human rights violation, a repudiation of the obligation to attend to the needs of asylum seekers and an injury to the nation’s standing around the world. That might be a good place to start examining how self-described Christians rationalize the abuse of human beings."
Shaw... add this term to your lexicon, put forward by Glenn Kirschner, Former US Army Lawyer...
Inveiglement
...to entice, lure or lead astray, by false representations or promises, or by other deceitful means.
Kirschner believes De Santis is clearly guilty of this...
Dave M. Of course DeSantis is guilty of that. He sent his agents to lure the asylum seekers onto the plan through deceit and the fraudulent brochures, pretending they were published by the State of Massachusetts. I'd add FRAUD to what they should charge DeSantis with.
His publicity stunt in service to his plans to be the next POTUS backfired on him.
Part One:
Well, I just had to take a little ride on the Ship of Fools to see their reaction to AG James’ suit against the Trump Cartel.
My reactions are italicized.
~~~
Geezer: (Why would any woman use a term for a old man?)
“It’s hard for me not to conclude it’s a political hit job,” Barr said. (What he’s really saying is, “It’s hard for me to look at the evidence.”)
I hate it when I’m mad at someone like Barr for certain comments, then they say something sensible, which I agree with…(Ignoring evidence is “sensible”.) and then I have to wonder about the comments I didn’t appreciate! (Wondering is good start. After “wondering”, a rational person would look at the overwhelming evidence Biden won, and the non-existence of evidence of massive fraud.)
=
Mustang: (He must have liked the old movie, “A Man Called Horse”.)
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I find myself loathing the career insiders, like Barr, (Bad Swamp Guy!) and then end up discovering how hopeful I feel when someone like Barr is nominated for an important position. (GOOD Swamp Guy, for unctuously auditioning for AG by denouncing the Mueller investigation of Russian election interference.) Misplaced confidence on my part; I must be among the dumbest people on the planet. (Rare insight?) Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. (Then shame on you.) And, once bitten twice shy is why I can’t muster up any warm and fuzzy feelings about Donald Trump. His over-confident arrogance and his lack of gentlemanly behavior cost him the election — which is how we ended up with Biden. (Ignore the thousands of lies, pandering to Putin, shameful Covid response, hateful divisive rhetoric, etc.)Should I forgive Trump for that blistering slap in the face? Trump told us on more than one occasion that he couldn’t stand losers. Well, guess what … ? (What? Go ahead, say it. We know...)
...How does one explain placing an illiterate black former slave into the position of a district court judge in a southern county in Mississippi? (Oh, mah stars! Raise the Stars and Bars!)
A reasonable person might understand how a southerner would deeply resent such actions and how, in later decades, why southerners developed the so-called Jim Crow laws. (Robe and hood alert!) The federal government did almost nothing “right” during the reconstruction period. (Blame them Damn Yankees, not the honorable patriotic Confederates!)
Now, explain to me how the behavior of Letitia James is any different from what was going on in 1865-1885. (Because AG James is exactly the same as an “illiterate black former slave”?) In this instance, Barr is 100% right.(By not looking at the evidence.) Her behavior is an abuse of power. (No evidence cited.) As a minimum, she should be impeached … but she’s also guilty of malicious prosecution, a serious felony. (The famous radical Right “Accusation devoid of evidence” ploy. Because “feelings”.)
=
Part Two:
(Continue)
Geezer:
I’ve got to repeat my words in my post that, for years, it’s bothered me when I feel someone deserves respect, then does something I disagree with (like Barr saying no massive voter fraud happened.) and being critical of Trump and his team then he says something like this about Letitia James, which I agree with. (Because of no evidence, amirite?) Instead of turning me totally off and finding him a self serving scalawag like many of us felt about Barr once he turned on Trump, it makes me wonder how true his words about the voting fraud could be. (Again, what does a rational person do after “wondering”?)
Interesting differing points of view.
I guess we have to see how much evidence this Letitia James has…..before we talk about impeaching her. (GASP! The “evidence” word!) Whether she despises Trump or not, and she clearly always does, all of her research can’t be wrong; she’s awful but maybe not awful enough to make accusations which are wrong or can’t be proven. (“Awful” because she’s a “commie” Democrat, or because she’s a “racist”, as Dear Leader says?)
~~~
Note how utterly incapable they are of condemning Trump for calling a Black woman AG a "racist".
Their silence says it all, doesn't it?
Dave Dubya, the Mother Ship is perfect example of blind-to-corruption Trump loyalists and sychophantic Trump excuse-making in the face of mountains of evidence of his toxic mendacity and galloping duplicity and dishonor.
I am fascinated by their utter inability to see reality and to understand that if any of this were perpetrated by, say, Barack Obama (or as their resident racists refer to him, "the halfrican," they would be writhing with outrage and screaming for his head on a pike.
They do not have the ability to step outside their cult and see Trump the way the rest of America and the world sees him: An unbalanced malignant narcissist who admires fascists and other corrupt politicians and who tried to fundamentally change America from a democratic republic to a dictatorship.
History will not be kind to them.
They do not have the ability to recognize reality because they are so dependent on their attachments to their cult leader and his lies as well as being totally and completely adverse to anything not tinged with the rot of trumpism, facism, and predatory capitalism.
Les, you hit the nail perfectly. We’ll marvel over this for years to come, not understanding their blind loyalty to such a destructive force in American politics.
I would think it is a compliant for the crossers to want to go to MASS and get a taste of their generosity. They could have said there was no way they wanted DC, Chicago and NYC because of the high crime rate and they are safer in their own country but I am sure they heard MV was very safe.
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