MIAMI.- The 50 Venezuelan immigrants sent two years ago by plane to Martha’s Vineyard by Governor Ron DeSantis could sue the flight company that transported them to that island off the coast of Massachusetts, according to a ruling issued on a federal judge in Boston.
The ruling of this Monday, April 1, maintains that lawyers for the immigrants can continue with their class action lawsuit against the airline company Vertol Systems Co., based in Florida, which would have negotiated to take them by plane to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars. .
Two years ago, 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, under the promise of job and housing opportunities.
The governor of Florida is also named in the lawsuit, but the US District Court of Massachusetts held in its ruling that it does not have jurisdiction over DeSantis in this case.
However, the court determined that the facts “taken together, support the hypothesis that Vertol and the other defendants directed their actions against the plaintiffs because of their status as Latino immigrants.” The lawsuit alleged that Vertol hired a person to recruit immigrants with false promises and fill flights.
For its part, the DeSantis administration noted that the judges’ order dismissed the state defendants. “As we have always said, the flights were conducted legally and were authorized by the Florida Legislature,” Julia Friedland, DeSantis’ deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
The court also said that “unlike ICE agents who legitimately enforce the country’s immigration laws… the Court sees no legitimate purpose for arresting highly vulnerable individuals under false pretenses and publicly inserting them into a divisive national debate.” ”.
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, called the 77-page ruling a major victory in the Martha’s Vineyard case. He said in a statement that the judge’s decision sends a message that private companies can be held accountable for helping dishonest state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through what he characterized as illegal and fraudulent schemes.
The governor of Florida said when news of the transfers broke that the flights shed light on the Biden administration’s border policies. “He inherited a border that was not like that, he created the crisis.” “At the end of the day, what we are doing is not the definitive solution, I think it is opening people’s eyes to what the solution is. Let’s have a secure border, let’s leave the ‘Remain in Mexico,’ let’s take the (drug) cartels ) oh really.
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