A Boston civil rights law firm this week filed a class action lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on behalf of Venezuelan migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard, calling the action a scheme to defraud vulnerable people to advance a political motive.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday seeks a jury trial and damages and asks the court to stop the state of Florida from “inducing immigrants to travel across state lines by fraud and misrepresentation.”
The suit was filed by Lawyers for Civil Rights and names as plaintiffs three of the Venezuelan migrants identified by the pseudonyms Yanet, Pablo and Jesus Doe, along with Alianza Americas, a network of 53 organizations committed to helping Latin American immigrants and asylum seekers.
In addition to Governor DeSantis, other named defendants include Jared W. Perdue, the Florida secretary of transportation, the state of Florida and a woman identified only as Perla who is alleged to have induced the migrants onto the flights.
On Wednesday, federal judge Allison D. Burroughs agreed to allow the lawsuit to proceed using pseudonyms for the three migrants.
Governor DeSantis has pledged to continue the state’s $12 million relocation effort. A flyer supplied by the governor’s office says the funds are being used “to facilitate the transport of illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard and other sanctuary states.”
He has also claimed the migrants boarded the flights voluntarily, producing as evidence signed copies of a brief consent form written in English and partly translated into Spanish. While Massachusetts is indicated as a destination in English, it is not included in the translated version.
But the lawsuit contends that the plaintiffs, fleeing rampant crime and civil unrest in Venezuela, immediately surrendered themselves to immigration officials on reaching the United States and were in active federal proceedings to determine their immigration status.
While living in a migrant shelter in Texas, they were targeted by people acting in concert with Governor DeSantis and others who pretended to be good Samaritans, giving them $10 McDonald’s gift certificates and falsely promising them employment, housing and educational opportunities if they were willing to board airplanes, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit further alleges that Governor DeSantis and other Florida state officials paid $615,000 for private chartered planes and told the migrants that they were flying to Boston or Washington, D.C., “which was completely false.”
Prior to landing, the migrants were given shiny red folders including a brochure entitled “Massachusetts Refugee Benefits” that purported to offer services and cash assistance.
“On information and belief, defendants manufactured the official-looking brochure — lifting language from the Massachusetts Refugee Resettlement Program, a governmental program with highly specific eligibility requirements for which no members of the putative class are eligible,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint claims 12 separate causes of action, including violations of constitutional due process, false arrest, fraud, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
