As he prepared for his 2024 presidential campaign, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) attempted to project an image of being a hardline immigration policy maker.
However, one of his most infamous initiatives appears to have backfired in a remarkably ironic way: the migrants he had flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on taxpayer-funded private charter planes are now eligible for “victim visas,” which allow them to remain in the country and continue working.
With his migrant flight stunt in September 2022, DeSantis grabbed national attention. He took use of a legal loophole to get federal Covid-19 stimulus monies, and claims that federal and Florida laws were broken followed suit.
The governor was criticized for not actively seeking migrants in Florida; DeSantis countered that he did so in Texas since it was simpler to locate them there because they were concentrated in areas immediately adjacent to the Mexican border.
The fact that this was happening just months before DeSantis’ November 2022 reelection was questioned by some as well as the fact that seeing elderly Cuban or Haitian women sobbing on Miami television over deported family members would not have benefited him politically.
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Numerous media sources stated that the migrants from Venezuela had been approached in San Antonio, given paperwork to sign that were not translated from English, and promised a free hotel room and food before being offered transportation to a place where they could find employment.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar filed a criminal complaint for unlawful restraint with the county district attorney in response to the migrants’ claims that they were duped.
A ruling on the subject has not yet been made public by the Bexar District Attorney.
In addition to filing the criminal case with the D.A., Salazar gave each impacted immigrant the certification required to apply for a U visa, also known as a “victim visa.”
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, these visas are “for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.”
The Herald said that three of the immigrants’ U.S. visa petitions were awarded “bona fide determination” status last month, preventing their deportation pending the approval of their visa and enabling them to apply for temporary work permits.
If they hadn’t been given the U visa bona fide determination status, it’s unclear how many of the migrants would have been able to prove they were eligible for asylum or another kind of immigration status that would have permitted them to remain in the United States.
