These liberal elites and academics are really passing me off.
Approximately 50 Venezuelan and Colombian migrants landed in Martha’s Vineyard airport Wednesday afternoon, and were left to find their way into the town with little to no information about where they were or where to go for resources. State Rep. Dylan Fernandes told the Vineyard Gazette that some of the migrants were “told they would receive housing and jobs immediately upon arrival,” yet the island was not notified of the transport before it landed.
Professor Erin B. Corcoran of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies tells Rolling Stone that, like anyone in the U.S., migrants who are not being held in custody cannot be transported without voluntary and informed consent. “Consent is making a decision with full information and without duress,” she explains. “States can’t physically move immigrants like federal immigration authorities can. They can move people around if they have them in custody. States don’t have the authority to do that.”
“If they were told they were going to Boston, they may have actually wanted to go to Boston,” she adds, citing the extensive amount of legal resources in the state’s capital, particularly the concentration of law schools running free or low cost representation. “I would not say that this would constitute trafficking, but this kind of conduct is very similar to what you would see human traffickers do. They move people around without their consent, they [hang] their immigration status over them, they take them out of areas that are familiar or where they have connection and the ability to connect and get services.”
If claims that the migrants were deceived into boarding the flights are found to have standing, the legal ramifications could be serious. “If they were coerced into consenting in a language they didn’t understand, or were deliberately misled, they or Massachusetts officials could charge Texas state officials responsible for fraud — or perhaps even kidnapping, depending on how they were coerced into boarding the transport,” Susan Akram, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, explained in an email.
The Massachusetts attorney general’s office said in a statement to Rolling Stone that their office is “in touch with state and local partners to offer support and resources as needed,” and is working to “get more information about this situation.”
Georgetown Law Professor Heidi Li Feldman says another possible avenue for legal recourse would be a tort suit on behalf of transported asylum seekers. Deception by transport organizers would mean the migrants likely “have a viable cause of action to sue DeSantis and those who helped him” for “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” as well as pain and suffering, Feldman says. This same principle was used by families separated at the border to sue the Trump administration for damages, a case that could potentially result in the government having to pay millions to asylum seekers.
The federal government could also take legal action, as, according to University of Southern California Gould School of Law Professor Jean Reiszi, preventing migrants from obtaining resources could give the U.S. standing to argue that DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and anyone else orchestrating these stunts are “frustrating the government’s enforcement ability.” Impeding the government’s ability to keep tabs on cases could open up Republicans to legal scrutiny, as Reiszi notes that asylum seekers are typically “under some kind of ICE supervision” as they appear before immigration officers and courts.
Professor Akram agrees, writing that “moving a case from one immigration jurisdiction to another is not a determination an individual state can make, and any state taking that into its own hands runs afoul of the federal immigration [system] — which raises the possibility of the federal government having a claim.”
In any case, legal action is already being explored. Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston area non-profit, said in a statement that they are “investigating the inhumane manner in which they were shipped across the country, to determine the responsible parties, whether state or federal criminal laws against human trafficking and kidnapping were violated, and what other legal remedies are available.” California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Twitter that he has already asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation into “possible criminal or civil violations of federal law based on this alleged fraudulent scheme.”
Father Chip Seadale of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, which is assisting in the effort to aid the migrants, tells Rolling Stone that efforts are being made to secure legal aid. “I’ve got lawyers coming from Boston and some on the island who are well versed in this situation with respect to the legal ramifications of being an undocemented refugee in the United States.” Seadale says all of the migrants are meeting with lawyers on an individual basis to ensure “their rights are preserved as best as possible.”
INHUMANE way they were shipped across the country?
Americans have been flying & riding buses for as long as I can remember-—and I am 82. IF it has been good enough for tax paying Americans for all these years-—why is it SUDDENLY INHUMANE???
There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe how hypocritical Democrats can be.
Just wow. If only these people cared About their fellow Americans as much as they do those who broke in to this country. Then again it is the party of lawlessness.