Federal DHS agents aided DeSantis' migrant stunt, attorneys allege

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/16/2123329/-Federal-DHS-agents-aided-DeSantis-s-migrant-stunt-attorneys-allege

Federal DHS agents aided DeSantis' migrant stunt, attorneys allege
Joan McCarter
Daily Kos Staff
Friday September 16, 2022 · 4:39 PM EDT
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ inhumane and depraved stunt keeps getting worse as more facts emerge. On Wednesday, DeSantis loaded 48 migrants—who are asylum-seekers mostly from Venezuela—onto planes in in San Antonio, Texas. They then flew them to Florida, then eventually on to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where there are no refugee services. Officials there had no warning, but the community rallied in support of the incomers to the point where officials received so many donations and volunteers that they had to turn them away.

That’s the heartwarming part of the story. The part that makes this so much worse than we even knew before is emerging as the story comes from the migrants themselves through the immigration attorneys who have mobilized to help them. That includes the allegation that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents assisted DeSantis in this stunt.

Here’s immigration attorney Rachel Self relating what she heard from her new clients.

According to the migrants, DHS agents met the migrants as they were boarding the plane. The agents gave them false addresses of homeless shelters from all over the country—from Tacoma, Washington, to Florida—and told them to use them as their contact addresses. “According to the paperwork provided to them, the migrants are required to check in with the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] office nearest to the fake address chosen for them by DHS, or be permanently removed from the United States,” Self said. Some are required to check in as early as Monday morning.

“It could not be clearer that this is an attempt to have these people ordered to be removed even if they try as hard as they can to comply with the instructions provided to them,” Self told a group of reporters.

“Their biggest concern today is that many of them have dates to appear in San Antonio Monday morning. Tacoma, Washington Monday morning. Washington, D.C. Monday morning,” Self said. “Their biggest concern is compliance.” Tallahassee immigration attorney Elizabeth Ricci told the Orlando Sentinel Friday that DHS and ICE had to be involved. “ICE likely conspired with the governor’s office to pull off the stunt,” Ricci said. “It couldn’t have been done without their direct involvement.”

DHS officials haven’t responded to the allegation yet, and they fucking need to.

The migrants were lured onto the planes thinking they were getting jobs and housing. Emmanuel, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant, told the San Antonio Report that he had been paid $200 in cash by a woman who identified herself as “Perla” to recruit fellow migrants to board the flights. He said Perla told him the migrants would be sent to “sanctuary states” where the government would help.

She told him an “anonymous benefactor” was funding the operation, including his payment. “Perla informed me that in those sanctuary states, the state has the benefits to help migrants,” Emmanuel told the Report. “I’ve just been the mediator because I like to help people.”

“A lot of people really come without plans, they want to come and just work and they have a hand that’ll provide them shelter,” he said. “I just saw it in that way, like a sweet way, doing it for good.”

Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is based in Boston, is providing free legal services to the migrants. The group also says that it is investigating claims by migrants that they were tricked or sent against their will into taking the flights by DeSantis, making it a possible violation of human trafficking laws.

DeSantis remains belligerent and monstrous and promises this will continue. He says he has people in Texas who are intercepting Venezuelans seeking refuge in Florida, where they likely have family they want to rejoin. “What we’re trying to do is profile, ‘OK, who do you think is trying to get to Florida?’ You’re trying to identify who’s most likely to come.” Are DeSantis’ “people” in Texas the DHS agents who allegedly helped him essentially kidnap these 48 people, including families with children?

The Department of Justice needs to be investigating this now. That was true before the allegations emerged that federal employees—agents of the DHS—were complicit in DeSantis’ monstrous stunt. Those allegations make a federal investigation imperative, and urgent.

[AllaN01Bear]

1. dhs needs to be 1: purged . 2: investigated and or shutdown.

[Mysterian]

2. DHS needs to investigate this immediately

and fire the officers involved.

[Sneederbunk]

4. DeSantis needs to be prosecuted for human trafficking and kidnapping.

[docgee]

27. Maybe DeSantis has stooges posing as DHC.

[Spazito]

3. Geez....

This is so appalling on so many levels.

[Samrob]

5. Trump embeds are all over the Executive Branch for the sole purpose of fucking things up!

The first thing I posted after Biden was sworn in was that he needed to pay attention to cleaning out the Executive agencies. Especially the civil servants hired in management positions after Trump was elected in 2016.

[Samrob]

6. Those that did this should be identified and summarily fired. nt

[bluestarone]

7. WHO would the person be that

makes decisions against these Homeland security people involved in this?

[vlyons]

17. Mayorkas is the Sec of HS

He needs to make a public statement about a full investigation

[bluestarone]

18. TY!

Will be interesting!

[vlyons]

19. Immigration is also organized under Homeland Security

nt

[Captain Zero]

21. Is he a tfg holdover??

Anybody know.

[vlyons]

24. You think TFG would nominate someone named Alejandro Majorkas?

First nominated by Obama in HS as director of immigration, then as deputy of HS. Nominated by Biden to head HS.

[onetexan]

23. My hunch is these DHS personnel in FL are RWers in cahoots w DeSatan. Exploiting human beings for

political gain is inhumane, vile and is completely antithetical to their "prolife" stance - rather just the opposite. Despicable!!

[lpbk2713]

8. Find "Perla". She could shed a lot of light.

Follow the money trail from the charter airline.

[GreenWave]

9. Clap them in irons.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. The systems do indeed hold.

[flying_wahini]

11. I just can not believe that people will do such illegal acts for Republicans. Even after J6.

They must be the most unethical people on the planet.

[Celerity]

20. They're christofash white nationalists, they don't see it as unethical, they see it as doing the

work of baby white power jeebus and his porcine, bloated herald of hate, Trumpy Thee Great.

[Sienna86]

12. Called my senators today re DHS

I will say alleged involvement but we need to know if they need to clean house

[gratuitous]

13. They're counting heavily on the refugees' inability to identify them

If you're a certain kind of cruel, it's not a bad bet. Who's a jury or a judge going to believe: A refugee who doesn't even speak American; or a decorated agent of a prestigious [sic] governmental agency?

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. She sounds pissed

I'm glad she's all over this.

[pandr32]

15. Isn't this kidnapping?

The migrants seeking asylum were lied to and did not consent to the 'political stunt' (as the media seems to be calling it). All these people were kidnapped with the full knowledge and planning of at least two Republican governors.

[bluestarone]

16. Sounds like some RE-assignments

Might be in order?

[Cozmo]

22. Of course, DHS cooperated with this. DHS and many other federal agencies are rife with RW extremists

[NullTuples]

25. Seems simple enough: Who is ultimately the Commander in Chief of DHS?

[jaxexpat]

26. Who could have ever foreseen it?

An organization with Nazi essentially baked into its freaking name has personnel who operate outside the norms to benefit the Nazis in our midst. Surely I jest!

But I'm not, you see. DHS was the permanent construct of Cheney's warped sense of patriotism, G W Bush's inability to see past his nose and the post 9/11 stupidity of the general public who approved its creation. Like a fungus, it permeates the entire federal government, slowing the effectiveness and generally mucking up all it touches. As slow to act in the interests of its citizens in favor of the MIC as government has seemed over the past 77 years it has accelerated that lethargy exponentially since the creation of the DHS. I imagine that they're working in conjunction and cooperation with the malevolent forces at the gates even better that their creators could imagine. Now that's organization.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

28. Will there be any consequences, ever?