A nation looked on in shock last week when Florida Gov. Ron De Santis rounded up more than 50 Venezuelan migrants who came to the country looking for asylum, fed them false information and then loaded them on two airplanes bound for Martha’s Vineyard.
De Santis, who is the actual governor of an entire US state, claimed it was retaliation for President Biden’s border policy. Unspoken was his desire to own the libs, which he undoubtedly did. But it also looks a lot like a crime against humanity, which bothers his base not one whit.
Let’s unpack this thing.
For one, these workers and their families were seeking asylum in the US — “asylum” is a legal term for a protection extended by the US to foreign nationals; asylum-seekers, therefore, are not “illegal” immigrants until they get denied asylum, and even then there are options for protection that do not include being kidnapped by the governor of a Southern state.
For another, these Venezuelan nationals were given fraudulent information in order to get them onto the plane. Rachel Self, an island attorney specializing in immigration issues, has been gathering evidence to support a kidnapping case against De Santis, discovering, among other charges, that the migrants were told they would be given housing and employment upon their arrival, and were told inaccurate information regarding the agency in charge.
“Accounts from the migrants who arrived last night make it clear that they were lied to again and again and fraudulently induced to board the planes,” she told the Martha’s Vineyard Times.
Even more: Martha’s Vineyard is a tiny island with a year-round population of 15,000 people, accessible only by boat or plane. This means that resources are extremely limited, bed space is at a premium and it is impossible to get thousands of people off the island at once.
In other words, it’s a total dick move.
Another: He spent more than $600,000 chartering these planes, and has vowed to exhaust a fund of more than $12 million, which he says has been earmarked for this purpose.
And what purpose is that? Trafficking? Kidnapping? An abuse of human rights?
“Deplorable” doesn’t quite cover the actions of Florida’s governor last week, or the toxic Americans who continue to cheer him on.
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