A group of migrants who were lured from Texas onto a plane that took them unwittingly to Martha’s Vineyard are now on the receiving end of a gesture of largesse from a member of law enforcement.
Sheriff Javier Salazar of Bexar County, Texas, took the step of certifying that the 49 migrants had been victims of a crime, a move that might make them eligible for a fast-tracked visa, allowing them to stay in the country, NBC reported. It’s a potential reversal of fortunes for a group of people who had their lived upended in what was a political stunt concocted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential wanna be who’s been playing a game of whose is bigger with Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, using migrants from Latin American countries as pawns.
Since both governors view a cruelty competition as a path to political expedience, they’ve been sending hundred of migrants—many of whom were not undocumented and were permitted to be in the country—from their states on buses and planes to so-called sanctuary cities, municipalities with a policy of generally treating immigrants humanely while their immigration status is adjudicated. But DeSantis is responsible for the most egregious of those stunts, in which he used taxpayer funds to charter a plane to pick up migrants from Texas, bring them back to his state and then send them on to Martha’s Vineyard.
If the sound of that made you go holy shit, how is that legal, you’ve already done a mind-meld with Salazar, the top local law enforcer in the county where those migrants were lured onto the plane. He’s investigating whether criminal charges can be brought in the case, specifically for unlawful restraint. In the meantime, he’s filed paperwork that the migrants’ lawyers can use to apply for the visas.
What we’re watching for next: news from Florida that a certain elected official’s head exploded upon hearing that his scheme to hurt them may end up giving them a foothold in the country after all.