A handful of the migrants shipped off to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 18 months ago are now legally allowed to work in the US — because they’re considered victims of a crime, their attorney says.
The migrants applied last year for a special type of visa designated for crime victims — known as a U-visa — after they claimed they were duped into boarding charter flights from San Antonio, Texas to the upmarket liberal enclave in Massachusetts with the false promises of jobs and housing.
At least three of the 49 migrants involved in the flight operation — spearheaded by DeSantis in September 2022 — received “bona fide determinations” for their U-visa applications this week, their immigrant attorney, Rachel Self, told the Boston Globe.
It means they can now find jobs and can’t be deported while they wait for their visa to officially come through, Self added.
The approval of a U visa can often, too, lead to permanent lawful status in the country.
The developments come after a sheriff in Bexar County, Texas launched a criminal probe in late 2022 after DeSantis took credit for the two taxpayer-funded migrants flights that landed in Martha’s Vineyard after a brief pitstop in the Sunshine State.
At the time, Sheriff Javier Salazar, an elected Democrat, railed against the flights that originally took off in his city — claiming the migrants were victims of a crime because they were allegedly “exploited and hoodwinked into making this trip” as part of a political stunt.
DeSantis, meanwhile, insisted the migrants boarded the flights “voluntarily.”
“Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ‘left to fend for themselves,’” a DeSantis rep said at the time.
“Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected.”
Still, the migrants were able to apply for the U-visas after the Bexar County sheriff confirmed they were assisting with his law enforcement probe.
The U-visa is specifically set aside for “victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” according to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Congress only permits the feds to issue 10,000 U-visas per year.
“These determinations are one step closer to justice,” Self, the immigrant attorney, said. “[They] further underscore that anyone who knows all the facts … simply cannot ignore the criminality of the actors.”
Meanwhile, there have been no updates in the Bexar County investigation since last year — despite the sheriff recommending the local district attorney file felony and misdemeanor charges of unlawful restraint against those who operated the flights.
The Bexar County DA hasn’t announced any such charges.
“The Bexar County DA’s inaction in this matter is concerning and cannot be understated,” Self said. “Crickets from the DA’s office. Why?”
Separately, a federal judge in Boston ruled earlier this month that the Martha’s Vineyard migrants can sue the charter flight company — Florida-based Vertol Systems Co. — that transported them to the island.
The court said that “unlike ICE agents legitimately enforcing the country’s immigration laws … the court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate.”
The ruling also found that the facts of the case “taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx immigrants.”
