Synthaholic
Diamond Member
- Jul 21, 2010
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I'm hoping that a Federal judge rules that DeSantis took these actions as not an official function of his job as Governor, putting him personally in legal trouble.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/05/california-florida-migrants-sacramento
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/05/california-florida-migrants-sacramento
Californiaās Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday branded his rightwing Republican Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis, a āsmall, pathetic manā, and appeared to threaten kidnapping charges for an episode in which a group of migrants was dumped at a Sacramento church.
Rob Bonta, Californiaās attorney general, said in a statement that 16 South Americans abandoned outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday were āin possession of documentation purporting to be from the state of Floridaā, and may have been duped into boarding charter flights via New Mexico after entering the US in Texas.
The episode has parallels to what critics called a similar āsoullessā stunt orchestrated by DeSantis last year in which his administration abandoned several dozen mostly Venezuelan migrants in Marthaās Vineyard.
Newsom, in a tweet posted Monday lunchtime directed at DeSantis, said: āYou small, pathetic man. This isnāt Marthaās Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?ā and linked to a section of Californiaās penal code stating anybody who āabducts or takes by force or fraudā a person found within the state āis guilty of kidnappingā.
Bonta, meanwhile, also said Florida was guilty of āstate-sanctioned kidnappingā if it was found to be behind the flights, which the documents reportedly show were operated by the Vertol Systems Co, the same contractor hired last year by Floridaās department of emergency management to move migrants from Texas to Massachusetts for $1.6m.
āWhile we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: state-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,ā Bonta said in the statement, adding that he was āevaluatingā whether violations of civil or criminal law had taken place.
Lawyers for the migrants caught up in DeSantisās stunt last September were on the ground in Sacramento on Monday, and say the circumstances are nearly identical, with the group having been promised accommodation, jobs and clothing that never materialized, and with no advance notice to social services.
āWeāre trying to establish what exactly they were told when they boarded the flights,ā said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights.
āThere are a number of needs people have when theyāre abandoned like this, food and shelter, but also legal assistance, and there needs to be immediate legal action to ensure their federal immigration proceedings are not compromised by this political stunt.
āThis kind of conduct is reprehensible, morally repugnant and also illegal. To the extent the individuals flown to California had the same kind of fraud and misrepresentation visited upon them that we saw with our Marthaās Vineyard clients, we fully intend to hold Governor DeSantis and his co-conspirators accountable in a court of law.ā
Newsom threatens kidnapping charges after Florida dumps migrants at church
Governor tweets āYou small, pathetic man ā¦ Kidnapping charges?ā, directed at DeSantis after migrants left outside Sacramento churchhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/05/california-florida-migrants-sacramento
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/05/california-florida-migrants-sacramento
Californiaās Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, on Monday branded his rightwing Republican Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis, a āsmall, pathetic manā, and appeared to threaten kidnapping charges for an episode in which a group of migrants was dumped at a Sacramento church.
Rob Bonta, Californiaās attorney general, said in a statement that 16 South Americans abandoned outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento on Friday were āin possession of documentation purporting to be from the state of Floridaā, and may have been duped into boarding charter flights via New Mexico after entering the US in Texas.
The episode has parallels to what critics called a similar āsoullessā stunt orchestrated by DeSantis last year in which his administration abandoned several dozen mostly Venezuelan migrants in Marthaās Vineyard.
Newsom, in a tweet posted Monday lunchtime directed at DeSantis, said: āYou small, pathetic man. This isnāt Marthaās Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?ā and linked to a section of Californiaās penal code stating anybody who āabducts or takes by force or fraudā a person found within the state āis guilty of kidnappingā.
Bonta, meanwhile, also said Florida was guilty of āstate-sanctioned kidnappingā if it was found to be behind the flights, which the documents reportedly show were operated by the Vertol Systems Co, the same contractor hired last year by Floridaās department of emergency management to move migrants from Texas to Massachusetts for $1.6m.
āWhile we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: state-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,ā Bonta said in the statement, adding that he was āevaluatingā whether violations of civil or criminal law had taken place.
Lawyers for the migrants caught up in DeSantisās stunt last September were on the ground in Sacramento on Monday, and say the circumstances are nearly identical, with the group having been promised accommodation, jobs and clothing that never materialized, and with no advance notice to social services.
āWeāre trying to establish what exactly they were told when they boarded the flights,ā said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights.
āThere are a number of needs people have when theyāre abandoned like this, food and shelter, but also legal assistance, and there needs to be immediate legal action to ensure their federal immigration proceedings are not compromised by this political stunt.
āThis kind of conduct is reprehensible, morally repugnant and also illegal. To the extent the individuals flown to California had the same kind of fraud and misrepresentation visited upon them that we saw with our Marthaās Vineyard clients, we fully intend to hold Governor DeSantis and his co-conspirators accountable in a court of law.ā
