For months, Florida governor and student bullier Ron DeSantis has earned the ire of Donald Trump, who sees him as an acolyte looking to steal his throne, which is to say his 2024 presidential candidacy. Now they have another thing in common: Both are now under criminal investigation.
As per the Miami Herald, authorities in Texas have formally opened an investigation into DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard stunt, in which 50 migrants were reportedly lured under false pretenses from San Antonio to Massachusetts, only to find themselves deposited on the swanky Massachusetts island. DeSantis took credit for the stunt, even as one shocking detail after another has emerged that paint him, as Daily Show host Trevor Noah put it, as “the Earth’s biggest dick.”
Since the stunt was made public, some have speculated whether DeSantis and those who helped him committed a crime, including human trafficking. That’s what Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar will be looking into.
“I believe people need to be held accountable for it to the extent possible,” Salazar said. “At this point, I’m not able to definitively say here’s the statute that they broke, either federal, state or local, but what I can tell you is it’s wrong. Just from a human rights perspective, what was done to these folks is wrong.”
Some of the migrants said they were surprised to find themselves on Martha’s Vineyard, claiming they’d been told they were going to Boston. On Monday, reports showed a brochure given to some of the migrants, which promised them housing, cash assistance, and jobs. Instead, they found themselves on the high-end vacation spot, where none of the three awaited them. DeSantis has offered vague denials of misleading the migrants.
DeSantis has emerged over the last couple years as arguably the most bulldoggish of Republican governors, willing to go to war against Joe Biden, the LGBTQIA+ community, even his state’s biggest employer. Now he may have upstaged even Texas governor Greg Abbott, who’s also been shipping immigrants to sanctuary cities and who’s also been accused of using refugees for political stunts. So far it’s worked; the likes of Fox News have eaten it up. But by going one step further than Abbott, DeSantis may have finally crossed a line even he wished he hadn’t crossed.
(Via Miami Herald)