geoff: The political fight over
the migrants sent to Martha's
vineyard last week on flights
arranged by Florida governor Ron
Desantis is now a legal one.
Desantis has been slapped with a
class action lawsuit for flying
roughly 50 people from Texas to
Martha's vineyard without food,
shelter, or resources planned.
The migrants' arrival to the
island was unannounced, and the
suit says that Desantis and
other individuals defrauded
vulnerable immigrants to advance
a political agenda.
The nonprofit group lawyers for
civil rights, which represents
more than 30 of the migrants,
alleges in the lawsuit that
governor Desantis lured the
migrants under false pretenses.
Oren sellstrom is one of the
attorneys involved in the
lawsuit and he joins us now.
Thanks for being with us.
How did your organization come
to represent these migrants and
where did the idea for this
class action lawsuit originate?
Oren: Well, we began receiving
calls about the situation within
hours of the plane touching down
on Martha's vineyard.
People on the island in the
community recognized that the
people who had just landed were
going to need a lot of
assistance, certainly some of
the necessities like food and
shelter, but that there were
also serious legal implications.
And so at lawyers for civil
rights, we were on the ground in
Martha's vineyard the next
morning and really worked around
the clock since then to make
sure and protect our clients'
legal rights.
That started with making sure
that their individual
immigration cases were not
prejudiced by this stunt that
had been pulled by governor
Desantis.
But at the same time, we
recognized that there were
significant civil rights
implications and that our
clients' civil rights had been
violated and that there needed
to be a lawsuit brought to
remedy that.
Geoff: And looking at the
filing, the suit alleges that
several dozen migrants were
gathered by a woman, and this is
a quote, "To sign a document in
ordetoecr reive a $10
McDonald's gift card," and that
this woman didn't explain what
the document stated and that the
document wasn't completely
translated into Spanish.
Tell us more about that and give
us a sense of what these
migrants were promised before
they got on the plane.
Oren: It was really insidious
the way that governor Desantis'
accomplices on the ground in
Texas worked to gain our
clients' trust and then to
induce them into this flight.
You know, you have to remember
that this is a very vulnerable
group of individuals already who
had fled violence in their home
country, who had -- most of them
traveled largely by foot across
Central America and Mexico to
reach our borders, really saw
the United States as a place of
refuge and came and presented
themselves to federal
immigration authorities, were
released, and it was then that
these folks that were working
with governor Desantis started
really preying on that
vulnerability.
Geoff: A Texas sheriff, as you
well know, has launched a
criminal investigation into
these Martha's vineyard flights.
Your work, of course, focuses on
the civil side.
You mentioned earlier that
their rights were violated, that
there are civil rights
violations.
Detail what you consider those
to be.
Oren: Our federal constitution
protects against illegal
seizure, against deprivation of
liberty.
It guarantees due process and
equal protection.
We believe all of those rights
were violated by this fraudulent
inducement.
It's also a case of a state
interfering in federal
immigration authority.
And so we have claims based on
that as well.
But really, it all boils down to
this idea that there was fraud
and deceit, that our clients
were promised jobs, they were
promised educational
opportunities for their children
would be waiting for them at
their destination.
And it was all deceit and
trickery.
Geoff: Governor Ron Desantis
makes the case, he makes the
political argument that these
so-called sanctuary
jurisdictions, these sanctuary
cities, are only feeling a small
fraction of what border towns
deal with every day as a result
of illegal immigration.
Take a listen to what he said in
a press conference earlier this
past week.
Gov. Desantis: They don't want
to have to pay any type of cost
on this.
And don't forget, this is an
island that advertised to be
sanctuary.
And they said they didn't have
the resources to keep to take
50.
Well, just imagine how all these
other places across our country
are having to be do.
Geoff: So what do you make of
that argument?
Oren: First of all, the idea
that this is a conversation that
can be started by this kind of
political stunt that treats
individuals as objects, as
political props, is wrong.
If we're going to have this
conversation about immigration
and immigration reform in this
country, it has to start from a
place of humanity, of
recognizing that people are
people and that they're the
lived experiences of our clients
have to be front and center.
But in terms of the actual
reception to the migrants when
they arrived on Martha's
vineyard, there was an
outpouring of support from the
island community and from the
commonwealth of Massachusetts in
general.
We here in this state value
people and treat them with the
dignity and respect that they
deserve.
Geoff: What are you hoping to
achieve with this lawsuit?
Oren: We want to hold the
perpetrators of this stunt
accountable, but mostly what our
clients told us is we don't want
this to happen again to anyone
else.
They tell us about the feeling
of abandonment that they felt
when they realized when they
stepped off the plane, that
everything that had been
promised to them was a lie,
essentially -- that feeling of
abandonment, that feeling of
despair.
They've told us over and over
again, we don't want anyone else
to have to go through that.
And that is the prime purpose of
the lawsuit.
Geoff: Oren sellstrom is an
attorney with the nonprofit
group lawyers for civil rights.
Thanks so much for being with
us.
Oren: Thank you for having me.
♪♪