Martha's Vineyard Migrants One Year Later: Texas Sheriff Explains How Ron DeSantis Illegally Lured Them to a Plane

It has been over a year since migrants from Venezuela were lured into a plane by recruiters backed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and then flown to Martha's Vineyard where they were left to fend for themselves in the cold Massachusetts weather.

However, these days, the Martha's Vineyard migrants are doing fine as they have a good chance of being granted asylum because they are now considered victims of a crime. After a perilous trek from Venezuela to the US, these migrants were approached by recruiters hired by the Florida government and promised jobs in Martha's Vineyard. However, once they arrived there, they were dumped at a local Catholic Church and left there.

CBS News launched a "60 Minutes" investigation into how Ron DeSantis's government lured them for this political stunt in his bid to appeal to the hardline rightwing anti-immigration crowd as he runs for president.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar is currently looking into this and spoke with CBS News, "From what we're able to tell at this point, basically, it looks like they drove around the area, looking for people that may look like the target audience that they're after," said the Texas sheriff. "And then made the approach."

Their targets were asylum seekers. One of them was Daniel Cauro who said two women in a white SUV offered help while they were outside a Texas resource center, hungry and tired. "She was saying, 'We want to send you to a state where there's not so many migrants, and you're going to have a lot of help because you're going to have housing and all that,'" he said in Spanish.

The woman identified herself as Perla. However, it was noted that this Perla was identified as Perla Huerta, a former US Army counterintelligence agent who was seen in Texas looking for migrants to fill the planes. The investigation found that she texted then Florida Public Safety Czar Larry Keefe while looking for migrants, telling him, "Just got back. churches were empty."

Martha's Vineyard Migrants' Legal Action May Move Forward After Grand Jury Decision

The two women who lured the migrants into the planes bound for Martha's Vineyard have now had criminal charges against them, including 49 counts of unlawful restraint.

According to the San Antonio Report, the case will soon be presented to a grand jury. which will then evaluate if more charges would be needed following the review of evidence,

"Those people were in Bexar County legally at that point," Sheriff Salazar noted. "Florida Gov. Ron "DeSantis' administration, I believe, saw that as an opportunity to make a statement with these folks, and they thought they were not going to be held accountable for it."

Martha's Vineyard Migrants May Get U Visa Granted as Victims of Crime

Ron DeSantis has called the political stunt a "voluntary relocation" of the migrants who originally came from Venezuela. However, since the means of luring them into the plane to Martha's Vineyard may be fraudulent, they can be considered criminally abducted to the United States. According to NPR, "That's enough predicate for the U Visa."

The U Visa is typically reserved for victims of crimes who help law enforcement in their investigations. This also makes things easier for them as they get to file their U Visa application in Massachusetts, a "reasonably immigrant-friendly jurisdiction where there's a lot of lawyers support and a lot of political support." However, the process to get one might still be a long one.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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