[ Stop calling it a “political stunt.” Florida governor Ron
DeSantis’s use of vulnerable immigrants as props is disgusting and
criminal.]
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RON DESANTIS SHOULD BE PROSECUTED  
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Jeff Weaver
September 17, 2022
Jacobin
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_ Stop calling it a “political stunt.” Florida governor Ron
DeSantis’s use of vulnerable immigrants as props is disgusting and
criminal. _

Florida governor Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters at a campaign
rally in Geneva, Florida, August 24, 2022. , Paul Hennessy / SOPA
Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

 

In recent months, Republican governors in Texas, Arizona, and Florida
have been transporting undocumented immigrants northward to cities
like New York, Washington, and Chicago. This included busing about a
hundred people to the vice president’s residence and dumping
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them on the street.

Governor DeSantis took this despicable practice of using vulnerable
men, women, and children as political props to a new low this week
when he paid for two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants to be sent to
Martha’s Vineyard. As has been reported
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the Venezuelans that DeSantis paid to transport were actually
recruited by a coconspirator in San Antonio, Texas, not in Florida. As
reported, this coconspirator, “Perla,” promised the migrants
transportation to Boston and expedited work permits. All of it was a
lie.

Various news entities have described DeSantis as engaging in a
“stunt.” That characterization is a troubling understatement of
the gravity of DeSantis’ conduct.

The truth is that DeSantis — apparently unconcerned about the
immorality of his actions — and those conspiring with him appear to
have acted criminally under Texas law. Title 5, section 20 of the
Texas Penal Code defines the crime of unlawful restraint. Under the
statute, a person is restrained if their movement is restricted
without their consent by, among other mean, moving the person from one
place to another. Restraint is without consent “if it is accompanied
. . . by deception.” Under the statute, the violation is a Class A
misdemeanor, unless the person restrained is under seventeen, in which
case it is a felony. According to reporting, there were children among
those criminally transported to Martha’s Vineyard.

That’s not to say that DeSantis and other Republican governors have
not violated a host of other state or federal laws by deceptively
transporting migrants across the country.

Some have called for US attorney general Merrick Garland to open an
investigation. The attorney general should. Unfortunately, while
describing DeSantis’s conduct as shameless, the White House refused
to commit to a thorough investigation of the abduction of the
Venezuelan migrants, the violation of their civil rights, and whether
DeSantis, Texas governor Greg Abbott, and Arizona governor Doug Ducey
acted unconstitutionally by interfering with the federal
government’s authority to manage immigration.
The Texas state attorney with jurisdiction should also open an
investigation and empanel a grand jury. The fact that DeSantis is the
governor of a sister state is no defense for breaking the law in
Texas. And while they are at it, they should investigate whether
Governor Abbott engaged in any similar deceit or other illegal
conduct. He is also not above the law. The same is true for state
attorneys in other affected states.

And where are the Republicans who only recently were asking that
Venezuelan migrants in the United States have their temporary
protected status extended? The hypocritical silence of figures like is
Marco Rubio
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deafening.

Finally, for all the Democrats who are so afraid of the immigration
issue, this is not about whether one supports or opposes this or that
immigration policy. Like Donald Trump’s family separation policy,
this issue runs much deeper. It’s about inhumane and illegal conduct
toward vulnerable people that is an affront to the values of every
decent human being.

Progressives owe the country — which endured four years of
lawlessness under Trump — to tell the truth about Ron DeSantis —
an aspirant to the highest office in the land. He has demonstrated
that, like Trump, he is willing to break the law to achieve political
power.

What DeSantis did is not a political “stunt.” It’s a clear
warning that, as president, he, like his Republican predecessor, would
view the rule of law as a principle that is expendable when political
expediency calls. And it’s a crime. He should be prosecuted for it.

* Ron DeSantis
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* Immigrants
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