Sunday Commentary: DeSantis Playing a Risky Political Card with the Transportation of Migrants

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By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor

Ron DeSantis this week stole from the Donald Trump play book when he sent two planes carrying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in a move that appalled human rights advocates while delighting the far right.

“It’s outrageous,” said New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez.  “They lure people, like human traffickers lure people, onto buses and unknowing where they’re going to. They have no concern for—they supposedly are the advocates for human life. They have no concern for the lives of these people.”

As CNN’s Chris Cillizza pointed out in a column on Saturday, “DeSantis couldn’t have scripted it any better politically.”

He added, “The simple fact is that DeSantis made this Martha’s Vineyard gambit solely to draw attention to himself and his opposition to the border policies of the Biden administration. It was, to be frank, a stunt. And it’s not the first time he’s done something like this.”

DeSantis has made a career out of taking actions like this—drawing criticism from the left and praise from the right, where he attempting to wrest the Republican Party from the volatile Donald Trump.

Just as quickly as the left rushed to attack him, the right ran to defend him.

“DeSantis was right to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. We need to bring border crisis to Democrats,” read an op-ed on Fox News’ website.

The first response has been for the left to look at legal solutions.  From a legal standpoint, the question is whether the migrants gave their consent to travel to the various locations.

“If they’re being transported against their will, it calls into question the human trafficking statutes. So far, nothing indicates they’re being held captive. They’re not being handcuffed and put on buses. So it’s unlikely that federal criminal trafficking statutes will come into play,” said Steven Block, a Chicago attorney at Thompson Hine and former assistant U.S. attorney who handled trafficking and corruption cases, told Politico.

Susan Church, a prominent immigration lawyer based in Cambridge, said, “There is absolutely the possibility of both civil and criminal liability if people were lied to about where they were going, what they were going to get when they got there.”

“There’s a concern of whether people are being unduly coerced to take the buses,” Shaw Drake, ACLU’s senior counsel on border issues, said in an interview. “If they’re being offered a free ride and choose it voluntarily, that’s one thing. But if they’re being pressured or coerced that’s another.”

But this could be a more powerful issue on a moral and political dimension.

DeSantis may well have gotten what he wanted—praise by the core Republicans for whom he is potentially battling with Trump for a 2024 Presidential nomination.

For the left however, if they play this the right way—debatable might be charitable here—they could flip the script.

DeSantis and Governor Abbott from Texas are playing this as though the migrants were a nuisance and they were “dumping the nuisance” on liberals.

Democrats and liberals have a chance to flip the script here—not by turning this into a legal issue, but by playing it as a humanitarian one.

First, they take the people and find them places in their community.

Second, if played correctly, this becomes a human rights issue.  DeSantis and Abbott have turned these people into political pawns.  Democrats can take this issue by restoring their humanity.

DeSantis, for example, wants to appeal to anti-immigrationists on the far the right.  But there is a danger.  The Democrats need suburban swing voters, particularly women, and this stunt is likely to look more cruel to those voters than it looks like smart policy.

Cillizza argues, “The fact of the matter—whether you like DeSantis or not—is that his outrage machine is humming along. Largely riding his knack for stirring controversy, he has emerged by many measures as the second-most popular Republican in the country—behind only Donald Trump.”

He is widely believed to be the only candidate who can credibly challenge Trump in 2024.

Cillizza adds that “what DeSantis is offering Republican voters amounts to Trumpism without Trump. In DeSantis, you get all the anti-wokeness that Trump built a presidential campaign and presidency on, but just without some of the more embarrassing personal foibles and tics that the former President brings with him.”

But there is of course another side to this.  DeSantis is likely to further alienate the more moderate swing voters, which gives the Democrats exactly what they want—another issue to push suburban women further into the Democratic Party.

The question really comes down to who plays the cards better.  I’m not betting on the Democrats here, but they are being given a political gift—if they find a way to take it.

About The Author

David Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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39 Comments

  1. Walter Shwe

    Surely DeSantis has broken some law by lying to these innocent people about what to expect when they arrived to their destinations and forging official documents.

    1. Keith Olson

      Biden has been transporting immigrants to locations all over the country in the dead of night often time without the approval of the states they were transported to.  Did you speak out then?

      1. David Greenwald

        Does the federal government also transport migrants?

        To defend the actions of Texas, Arizona and Florida, Republican lawmakers have said the Biden administration also transports migrants to different states. But it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

        The federal government does transport certain migrants who cross the border unlawfully to locations across the country, but not to make a political statement — and the practice has been in place for decades, under Republican and Democratic administrations.

        The Department of Health and Human Services, which is legally required to care for migrant children who cross the border without their parents, transports these unaccompanied minors, including on charter flights, to different locations to place them in a shelter or release them to relatives or other sponsors in the U.S.

        ICE also transports some migrants arrested along the U.S. southern border to detention centers or to other regions of the border to alleviate overcrowding at holding facilities. Federal immigration officials sometimes fly migrants to different areas of the southern border where Mexico accepts their expulsion.

        Source

        1. Keith Olson

          There have been millions of illegal immigrants who have crossed our borders in the last couple of years.  Never on this scale have they been flown or bused across the country like Biden has done the last two years.  Your cherrypicked article falls on deaf ears as most of the country is against what’s happening at the border and the subsequent actions taken bey Biden and his administration.  DeSantis and Abbott win this argument hands down.  It’s a losing position for Democrats to take.

          1. David Greenwald

            It appears that your “what about” ferry has hit an iceberg and you are throwing up subterfuge in response.

        2. Keith Olson

          t appears that your “what about” ferry has hit an iceberg and you are throwing up subterfuge in response.

          Funny, but the same can be said about your 8:56 post above.

  2. Ron Oertel

    I’ve heard that the immigrants who arrived at Martha’s Vineyard are being treated pretty well.  Maybe that’s where the next batch will go, on their own.

    2 million people (or whatever the number is) aren’t “legitimately” seeking asylum.  They are seeking a better life compared to what their home country provides.

    As long as this country provides incentives for illegal immigration, it will continue and expand. If those incentives were eliminated, you wouldn’t even need a wall or border patrol in a hopeless attempt to control the flow. It’s not unlike the war on drugs, in a sense. The border is probably too long to ever control it effectively via walls, etc. Plus, they can always arrive via boat, as attempted within the past year or two (when a boat capsized off San Diego, killing a bunch of them). Or, when they’re “trucked in” and suffocate or crash, as has also occurred.

    Those who encourage illegal immigration are facilitating these type of results.

    The states which experience the most illegal immigration have apparently had enough, with the exception of California.

    Good luck turning this into a “human rights” issue.

    1. Ron Oertel

      Oh, and let’s not forget how many die out in the desert or drown in the Rio Grande. And separating-out kids from their families, leaving them to make the high-risk journey on their own. (No, I’m not talking about what occurred AFTER they arrived.)

      There’s your “human rights” issue – enabling/encouraging this to continue. From the same people who claim to be extraordinarily concerned about human rights in the first place.

      Ironically, it’s probably Border Control who end up saving a lot of lives.

      And by the way, how is this “fair” to anyone who attempts to enter the country legally?

      1. Mark West

        RO:  “how is this “fair” to anyone who attempts to enter the country legally?”

         

        The people that DeSantis shipped to Martha’s Vineyard all entered the country legally through official ports of entry. They are here applying for asylum and whether or not you agree with their claim is of no consequence. All those officially seeking asylum are doing so both legally and legitimately, and until such time as their claim is adjudicated, they are not illegal imigrants.

        1. Ron Oertel

          I’m seeing any source from you which supports your claim.

          I haven’t researched this group (in particular), but DeSantis’ communications director implies that they entered into the country illegally:

          Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.

          Here’s some additional information from the same article:

          While DeSantis’ office didn’t elaborate on their legal status, many migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are temporarily shielded from deportation after being freed by U.S. authorities to pursue asylum in immigration courts — as allowed under U.S. law and international treaty — or released on humanitarian parole.

          https://www.cbsnews.com/news/immigration-marthas-vineyard-desantis-flights-illegal-immigrants-sanctuary-destinations/

          The ability to be shielded from deportation AFTER entering the country illegally is one of the “incentives” which enables this situation to continue – in mass.

          If it was legal to just enter into the country at will and at any location, they wouldn’t need official border crossings – other than (possibly) to check for contraband. I doubt that even American citizens can legally return to the country without going through an official border crossing, let alone non-citizens.

          1. Don Shor

            Those arriving at the U.S. border are being depicted as “illegal immigrants,” but in reality, crossing an international border for asylum is not illegal and an asylum seeker’s case must be heard, according to U.S. and international law.
            “It doesn’t matter how you enter the country: If you’re in the U.S. or you arrive at a port of entry you can seek asylum. There’s no way to ask for a visa or any type of authorization in advance, you just have to show up,” said the IRC’s director of immigration Olga Byrne.
            — International Rescue Committee.

            https://www.rescue.org/article/migrants-asylum-seekers-refugees-and-immigrants-whats-difference

            Once a person has entered the United States and requested asylum, regardless of the likely outcome of their case they are not “illegal immigrants.”

            Ron:

            The ability to be shielded from deportation AFTER entering the country illegally is one of the “incentives” which enables this situation to continue – in mass.

            It is the law. We have asylum laws in place for a reason; the U.S. has a long history of allowing entry to people who are fleeing persecution. So if you or any others want that to change, I suggest that immigration reform legislation would be the place to get that done.

        2. Ron Oertel

          All those officially seeking asylum are doing so both legally and legitimately, and until such time as their claim is adjudicated, they are not illegal imigrants.

          That’s an opinion, which (as you stated to me) is of no consequence.  It’s also likely factually incorrect, in more than one way.

          Meanwhile – there’s folks around the world who can’t just “walk into” this country across the desert or via some other illegal point of entry, due to geographic constraints. They’re stuck doing so the “legal” way, which (from what I understand) can take decades.

          Politically, those who support illegal immigration are on a losing side. This is one way that Trump got elected.

        3. Ron Oertel

          Once a person has entered the United States and requested asylum, regardless of the likely outcome of their case they are not “illegal immigrants.”

          Actually, I’m not seeing that.  They are protected from being deported, as already noted.  (Not sure at what point they’re officially protected from deportation, but the article I posted implies that this occurs once they’ve been “released by U.S. authorities”.)  But that doesn’t mean they haven’t broken the law by crossing the border illegally.  Hence, they could still be defined as “illegal immigrants” for breaking that law.

          I suspect there’s no consequences for breaking that law – regardless of the outcome of their hearing seeking asylum. (I do recall that some people reportedly want to eliminate that law entirely.)

          t is the law. We have asylum laws in place for a reason; the U.S. has a long history of allowing entry to people who are fleeing persecution. So if you or any others want that to change, I suggest that immigration reform legislation would be the place to get that done.

          Not likely that I’m going to lead the charge, on that, though I have been willing to discuss it on this blog at least.  This system is a primary reason that the situation exists (including the rise of human smugglers, unnecessary deaths, etc.).  Not to mention the impact on the country as a whole, and especially communities near the border. “Human rights in action”, I guess.

          So apparently, anyone can claim that they’re seeking asylum, and automatically stay in the country at least until their hearing.  (Assuming that they even show up for that hearing.)  Resulting in vast numbers of “asylum applicants” entering the country.

          Does this seem like a workable system to you, Don?

          (My fifth comment for the day.)

  3. Dave Hart

    What DeSantis is doing is morally degenerate.  The people at Martha’s Vineyard treated them very well because they are decent human beings unlike he and they who did the work to mislead these people into thinking this was in their best interests, assuming they didn’t just outright lie to them.  I wish everyone who even remotely defends this kind of behavior by DeSantis would put themselves into another’s shoes for just a full minute.  Contemplate leaving your home and going to another country because things are so bad that you are compelled to leave your home, friends and relatives and go where you may not speak the language well.  You have all of that on your head and then you get jacked around by powerful people.  And this creep is elected!  Doesn’t say much for the state of Florida or his base.  DeSantis shows us that we have much more serious problems than immigration.

    1. Ron Oertel

       Contemplate leaving your home and going to another country because things are so bad that you are compelled to leave your home, friends and relatives and go where you may not speak the language well.

      Seems like no one ever contemplates the friends, relatives, and strangers “left behind”.  The ones who either don’t find things bad enough to leave, or can’t leave.

      With problems compounded by those abandoning their own country, who (presumably/hopefully) aren’t the ones who are creating the problem in those countries in the first place.

      In other words, only the “good guys/gals” are leaving – or so we hope. The “victims” of others, as it were.

      Unless the entire “good” populace of those countries moves to the U.S., it’s likely having a negative net impact on those left behind.

      This is not unlike the advocacy that some put forth to move entire populations from “bad” areas within the U.S., to “good” (“opportunity”) areas. A wholesale abandonment of places like Stockton and Oakland, I guess. Hopefully, only leaving the “bad guys” behind – creating an “Escape from New York” type of community in its wake.

      1. Dave Hart

        The United States’ entire history is immigration by people leaving home because they felt they had no choice, so nothing new here.  One thing that is different from the 18th and 19th centuries, however, is that the United States has had decades to moderate its policies toward Central and South American countries that could have created better conditions and fewer reasons to leave home for those people.  Economic colonialism creates economic problems including massive corruption and crime:  hence refugees.  They aren’t just looking for better jobs, they’re escaping a dangerous environment and trying to survive.

        1. Ron Oertel

          As far as the United States’ entire history, things change over time.  Perhaps it can’t be the depository for the world’s problems, anymore. (Perhaps the inscription in regard to the Statue of Liberty should be changed to something along those lines.) Though truth be told, it might be even “worse” to pursue those with skills, in regard to locking-out existing citizens from higher-status jobs.

          I don’t know how urban planning is possible, with borders that are wide-open to anyone who claims that they’re migrating to “seek asylum”.

          Regarding economic colonialism, maybe.  But then I’d ask if everything is the “fault” of the United States, and what current conditions would be had “economic colonialism” not occurred at all.

          Regarding those “escaping a dangerous environment”, again I’d ask – what about those left behind?  (Assuming this is the actual reason.)  And, what is the impact on those countries as a result of (good?) people leaving?

          Maybe, just maybe – people ultimately have to solve their own problems, and stop relying upon governments (which aren’t even their “own”) to solve it for them. And actually, that goes for the people already in this country, who are forever waiting for their own government to solve their problems.

        2. Dave Hart

          It’s never the big bully’s fault from his followers’ point of view.  And those who do feel compelled to come here to escape now must bear the added weight of sacrificing themselves in some way?  That’s just as harsh as DeSantis.

  4. Keith Olson

    What do you all think Biden is doing.  He’s shipping millions of illegal immigrants all over the country in buses and planes in the dead of night and as DeSantis  stated Biden didn’t ask for permission.  So when DeSantis does the same thing it’s somehow immoral or against the law?  Do you people even hear yourselves?

    I say what DeSantis and Abbott are doing is both brilliant and correct.  Send the immigrants to the parts of the country who haven’t had to deal with the problem, like Martha’s Vineyard and Kamala Harris’s front yard.

    “Your Turn” is the new slogan where states being pummeled with illegal immigrants walking across the border or being transported in by Biden are sending them to sanctuary cities.  And it’s so hypocritical when these supposed sanctuary cities complain about the influx.

    I say DeSantis for President 2024.

     

    1. Dave Hart

      Because I believe someone who I don’t like is alleged to have done something, that makes it okay for me to do it?  This is not only morally degenerate, but in DeSantis’ case, cruel.  Do we need someone to be president who is cruel?  That is the real, deeper problem for our country.  Cruelty has not only become an exalted and desired trait for elected office, but some people feel comfortable saying it out loud.  Where does that leave any of us in a real national emergency?

        1. Keith Olson

          But cruelty is cruelty.  Gutless cruelty.

          So depending on the lens though which you view it is it gutless cruelty when Biden is shipping tens of thousands of immigrants all over the country in the dead of night on ghost flights to destinations that the states often have no advance notification that they are coming?

           

           

           

          1. David Greenwald

            Except that he’s not. They are holding people in detention centers – something I disagree with, but not on the same level as to what DeSantis is doing.

          1. Don Shor

            What information was provided to the asylum seekers?
            What facilities were available for them at the end of their flight?
            Were prior arrangements made for the incoming immigrants to be met and processed at the end of their flights?
            Did the governor have legal authority to provide those flights?
            Under Trump, the DHS began relocating asylum seekers from the overcrowded facilities in Texas to processing centers throughout the US. The Biden administration has continued that practice. It relieves the overcrowding in Texas and is done legally, with facilities and services provided at both ends.
            The governors of Florida and Texas don’t have legal authority to do any of that. They are literally taking people and delivering them to random places where they are far from facilities, and leaving them there.
            Your repeated whataboutism and constant harping on your perception of hypocrisy look particularly uninformed on this topic.
            Please provide us information about the resources and facilities provided by the governor’s office to the immigrants, and the legal basis for the actions of the governor of Florida.

          2. David Greenwald

            Correct not do that.

            “The Department of Health and Human Services, which is legally required to care for migrant children who cross the border without their parents, transports these unaccompanied minors, including on charter flights, to different locations to place them in a shelter or release them to relatives or other sponsors in the U.S. ICE also transports some migrants arrested along the U.S. southern border to detention centers or to other regions of the border to alleviate overcrowding at holding facilities. Federal immigration officials sometimes fly migrants to different areas of the southern border where Mexico accepts their expulsion.”

            Transporting people to shelter or detention centers is not the same as dumping a busload of people at Martha’s Vinyard to make a political station.

        2. Keith Olson

          First you please provide proof that Biden is notifying the state and city authorities  where these immigrants are being shipped.  DeSantis has already said that’s not the case.

          Second, please provide proof that what Biden is doing is legal, not the what about that someone else did it first.

  5. Walter Shwe

    I guess when Republicans complain about not having their hotel rooms cleaned and having to wait for seeming forever to get serviced in restaurants I will call them hypocrites. These are the types of low wage jobs that the vast majority of Republicans won’t touch with a 10 foot pole.

    1. Ron Oertel

      If those industries hire illegal workers, the industries themselves are a target for ICE.

      (I believe that ICE often does focus on employers.)

      No industry should be taking advantage of them in the first place.

      I was recently watching a program which showed illegal immigrants working for illegal marijuana growers. From the description, they were almost like indentured servants (e.g., they still owed money to those who brought them into the U.S.). As I recall, they claimed that they weren’t even told of the type of job waiting for them.

      And of course, there’s also reports of human trafficking (e.g., prostitution).

  6. Keith Olson

    I see where Gov. Newsom has been attacking DeSantis for transporting the immigrants.  But there are reports that Newsom bused the homeless out of San Francisco when he was the mayor there.  Should Newsom be investigated for the same things he’s accusing DeSantis of?

    California’s outspoken Democratic governor is under fire for hypocrisy after exchanging barbs with Republican governors on immigration.
    Newsom accused Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott of kidnapping and called their transportation of illegal immigrants “morally reprehensible,” while ignoring a program he created as San Francisco mayor to bus homeless people out of the state.
    https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/09/19/gov-newsom-takes-heat-for-one-way-homeless-bus-program-as-sf-mayor-1287136/

      1. Keith Olson

        From the article:

        The rest couldn’t be found or were struggling somewhere else. Some couldn’t be tracked by the city, while others were in jail, homeless elsewhere or reported missing by their caretakers. A few returned to San Francisco, and one never left.

        [edited]

        1. David Greenwald

          Also from the article: “ Other cities around the country, including Seattle, Denver and New York, also provide homeless people bus tickets out of the city. But few follow up with clients to the extent San Francisco does. Seattle, for example, has no follow-up protocol in place, while Denver makes just one check-in 30 days after someone leaves.”

          Clearly this program isn’t entirely successful, but once again the parallel is not there to what DeSantis is doing

        2. Keith Olson

          But the program bused the homeless out of the city to another location.  I don’t think a lot of people see that as much different than what Florida did?  Or what Biden is doing at the border.  It’s all in how one sees it and of course you’re going to see it from your political perspective just as others will see it from their’s.

           

          1. David Greenwald

            For which they provided services, support and follow up. Whereas, DeSantis was making a political statement. And somehow you think the two things are the same. You aren’t looking at the details of what they did and the differences. The article I provided you on the program is actually very critical of the program and it shows it didn’t work well, but at the same time, there is a world of difference between in the intent – but you won’t acknowledge that.

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