Back September 2022, Ron DeSantis (aka Ron DeSatan) decided to pwn™ the libs by dumping a bunch of undocumented immigrants on the “librul enclave” of Martha’s Vineyard, figuring he would show them up as hypocrites and, not at all incidentally, burnish his credentials as a hard-right conservative who would teach those libs — and immigrants as well — a well-deserved lesson. Florida flies ‘illegal immigrants’ to Martha’s Vineyard.
It didn’t work out as planned. For one thing, them libs at MV actually welcomed the immigrants, fed them, housed them, and found long-term places for them. Some of the immigrants are still on the island working at good jobs: How Migrants Flown to Martha’s Vineyard Came to Call It Home. And of course it quickly became known that DeSantis had to go to Texas to find immigrants to dump, spending lots and lots of Florida taxpayer dollars to do so — and probably broke FLorida laws in the process. The Story Behind DeSantis’s Migrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard:
Florida officials have provided little information about the program or how it was engineered. But details have begun to emerge of the clandestine mission that was carried out without the knowledge of even the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican: flights paid for with state money in possible violation of the state law that allocated the money; a charter airline company with political ties to the Florida governor.
But it gets worse for DeSantis and better for the immigrants. The Miami Herald reports this morning that Some migrants flown by DeSantis to Martha’s Vineyard qualify for victim visas, feds say:
Some of the 49 migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by the state of Florida are now able to legally work in the United States and have temporary protections from deportation — because they are considered victims of a potential crime, their attorney says.
The migrants are eligible for these protections because they applied for a special kind of visa meant for crime victims who are helping law enforcement, after they said they were tricked into taking charter flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts with false promises of jobs and other aid, said Rachel Self, an attorney for the migrants.
The Herald story continues:
[I]t was the tactics [Florida] used in the operation that eventually led Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar to launch a criminal investigation and grant each migrant a certification that allowed them to apply for U visas.
Last June, Salazar recommended that the district attorney in Bexar County bring criminal charges over alleged deceptive tactics used by the state to lure migrants onto the flights. The district attorney has not yet announced any action on the case.
U visas are limited, and there are far more applicants than that asking for them. But DeSantis’s stunt gave these immigrants a strong case:
After waiting for more than a year, some migrants this month received “bona fide determinations” in their U visa petition, a status that allows them to obtain temporary work permits and protects them from deportation until their visa becomes available. It was not immediately clear how many migrants had received that status from the federal government.
Because Congress only allows the federal government to issue 10,000 such visas each year, there are thousands of applicants on a waiting list. The “bona fide determination” gives the migrants targeted by the state of Florida protections while they wait.
In short, not only did DeSantis arguably break federal, Florida, and Texas laws by shipping the migrants north, he gave them a way to stay in the country legally. Seems he couldn’t break the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Karma is a, well, you know.