Friday, June 9, 2023 | 2 a.m.
The people’s diversity in The Golden State is as splendid as the weather.
The South American immigrants Gov. Ron DeSantis has flown to sanctuary city Sacramento, in yet another inhumane stunt, will be fine in the long run.
His standing, on the other hand, is another story.
Not having picked up any human-decency skills from the Martha’s Vineyard experience, DeSantis has again toyed with immigrants’ lives.
Twice in four days, Florida — whose Legislature indulged the governor’s hate and funded with an additional $12 million in taxpayer dollars secretive and legally questionable migrant flights — recruited new groups of immigrants in Texas to ship to California.
Again, flights were unannounced in order to create chaos when no one is at the drop-off point to receive asylum-seekers legally processed at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“You small, pathetic man,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom called DeSantis, homing in with a surgeon’s precision on our governor’s essence.
But DeSantis has more than a political foe’s words to worry about.
If the Texas sheriff recommendation that criminal charges be filed in the case of DeSantis’ migrant flights from San Antonio to Massachusetts prevails, perhaps he might also rise to the category of human trafficker.
Newsom also vowed to seek kidnapping charges.
DeSantis’ record of oppressing the least powerful in society is impressive.
But, on immigration, a matter of federal, not state, jurisdiction, DeSantis’ excesses might just cost him more than he anticipated, starting with egg on his face.
His flights might become the ticket through which migrants he exploited for political points get to stay in this country forever.
If victims of a crime, legal and undocumented immigrants are protected by U.S. law from deportation.
“Many immigrants are fearful of admitting that they have been a victim of a crime, in part, because they believe they will be removed (deported) from the United States if they report the crime,” the Department of Homeland Security website states. “U.S. law provides several protections for legal and undocumented immigrants who have been victims of a crime. There are specific protections for victims of domestic violence, victims of certain crimes, and victims of human trafficking.”
To conduct his Texas investigation, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar needed the witness testimony of the 48 migrants DeSantis flew from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard. To get their cooperation as witnesses, they were granted protections under the victims of human trafficking provision of the Homeland Security laws.
And talk, they did.
One document obtained by the Miami Herald alleges DeSantis’ operation lured migrants onto the flights with false promises of jobs, housing and other opportunities. The sheriff is now recommending that the district attorney file criminal charges.
If the case progresses, Florida, once again, will have to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars to defend DeSantis’ violations of people’s rights.
And the immigrants now not only have legal cases for asylum with which to proceed, but also the peace and protection the law confers on them of being witnesses to a potential crime. They will most likely get to stay.
Newsom also vowed to prosecute under human-trafficking laws those responsible for the flights to California’s capital city, one DeSantis has mocked for being an immigrant sanctuary.
Again, the immigrants DeSantis sought to hurt win on his dime.
Florida’s governor, it turns out, may be good at stoking the Trump crowd’s hatred of immigrants this labor-short nation needs, but he’s also pathetically incompetent.
He doesn’t look ahead when he acts upon his campaign needs and impulses. And Florida taxpayers foot his bill for all of it.
DeSantis’ extremism also has Florida’s agriculture, tourism and construction industries nervous and displeased. They need the immigrant labor. They need the tourism of Black people and Hispanic people turned off of the state by DeSantis’ discriminatory laws. Instead, organizations are issuing travel advisories.
What a legacy to leave to his children. They’ll grow up and judge him for what he’s gratuitously doing to other humans fleeing misfortune Americans, hopefully, will never know. His children will look back, see how DeSantis used them, too, as anti-immigrant props when he made a campaign video of them playing with blocks as if they were helping ex-President Donald Trump build his wall.
Not a bit of smarts went into DeSantis sending two small groups of infinitesimal importance to a state that, until 1848, was part of Mexico, to where many “whites” trace their heritage. A state with a $3 trillion-plus GDP, where almost 40% of the people are Hispanic and another 16% are Asian.
Any immigrant would feel at home here.
DeSantis is small and pathetic, indeed. But is that any surprise?
Fabiola Santiago is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
