Some of the migrants who were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from Florida as part of a political stunt orchestrated by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2022 will receive visa protections. This comes after civil rights lawyers argued they were victims of crimes when they were tricked onto flights with false promises of housing and work.
Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) are representing the 49 migrants and said Monday that at least three received determinations for U-visas, which are distributed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for victims of certain crimes like false imprisonment and abduction who comply in the investigation of criminal activity. Attorney Rachel M. Self said they expect more to be issued.
“These determinations are one step closer to justice,” Self said. “[They] further underscore that anyone who knows all the facts … simply cannot ignore the criminality of the actors.”
The visas lead to permanent residency and protect migrants from deportation. A limit of 10,000 U-visas may be granted each year, according to USCIS. But there is a backlog of 210,000 applications pending, with an average wait time of 10 to 15 years.
In light of being granted authority to proceed with the lawsuit in federal court, LCR on Wednesday sent letters to the attorneys general of California, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania — which have received tens of thousands of migrants bussed from Texas.
DeSantis in 2022 sent staff to San Antonio, Texas, to approach migrants with McDonald’s gift certificates and hotel room stays to entice them aboard flights that they said were headed to New York, Washington, D.C. and other cities where they’d find housing and work, according to court filings. Legal representatives said migrants did not know they were being sent from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar in Texas investigated the incident and determined that the migrants were tricked. In late March, a class-action lawsuit against Vertol Systems Company Inc., which allegedly contracted with Florida to fly immigrants to Massachusetts, was allowed to continue. The suit was filed by Alianza Americas and the Martha’s Vineyard migrants.
Vetrol allegedly received $1.56 million from Florida, including $615,000 for the flights to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022. The company was paid nearly $1 million more for additional flights that were canceled following the class action lawsuit, according to LCR.
“The favorable ruling sends a crucial message: private companies can — and will — be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through illegal and fraudulent schemes,” LCR lawyers said.
The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts found that DeSantis’ political stunt was racially motivated and discriminatory, targeting them “because they were Latinx immigrants.” It further found that state officials were not legitimately enforcing any immigration laws and rounded up “highly vulnerable individuals and publicly injected them into a divisive national debate.” The migrants experienced “substantive” due process violations, unlawful seizure and emotional distress, the court said.
In June last year, DeSantis appeared to strike again. Colombian and Venezuelan migrants who had arrived in New Mexico were sent to Sacramento, California, on a bus that arrived at the city’s main transportation hub in the early hours of the morning. Social service agencies in the state were not given advance notice of their arrival, and people were left outside a church for hours without food, water or shelter.
Migrants Duped into Martha’s Vineyard Flights Granted Visa Protections
