Govs Abbott and DeSantis immigrant stunts appear to violate federal and state law (1 Viewer)

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    superchuck500

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    Abbott and DeSantis have been loading up undocumented immigrants and sending them on buses and planes to places like DC and even Martha's Vineyard. The immigrants have indicated that they did not know where they were going, and did not even know where they were when interviewed. Abbott and DeSantis seem to believe that it is unfair that their states have to deal with undocumented immigrants while lawmakers in DC refuse to make significant changes to the process or border security - so this entitles them to this kind of action involving the transportation of human beings.

    But while their opinions about it may be understandable, their actions in trafficking human beings for purposes of a political stunt appear to be illegal under both federal and state law. These relocations are not pursuant to any legitimate federal or state immigration program. The governors are simply loading these people up and shipping them out - and they are doing it for exploitative purpose: a political stunt to drive support from the base. The fact that they send photographers along underscores that this purpose is exploitative.

    Under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act Sec. 274(a)(1)(A)(ii), it is a crime to knowingly transport an illegal alien across state lines. http://www.lawandsoftware.com/ina/INA-274-sec1324.html.

    Under Florida statutes, Title 46 Section 787.06, defines the criminal activity of human trafficking as "transporting, soliciting, recruiting, harboring, providing, enticing, maintaining, purchasing, patronizing, procuring, or obtaining another person for the purpose of exploitation of that person."

    Texas's trafficking statute is more specific about the kind of exploitation that makes it illegal - and requires some kind of transportation for purposes of sexual exploitation or forced labor, so the Texas law probably does not apply to this conduct. Texas Penal Code Title 5, Section 20A.
     
    El, what you are ignoring - is the reason some cities decided not to cooperate with ICE. It’s because migrants were being victimized, including violent crime, and were afraid to report it to police due to their immigration status. From what I read there were a lot of women being violently abused and even killed because they wouldn’t dare to seek help. It’s not some sort of “woke” agenda to piss off Rs. Unless helping these women will piss them off.
     
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    The legal ramifications around this are quickly mounting up. For a state where teachers are vastly underpaid, I don't think taxpayers are gonna love paying 12 million for a craven political stunt. Plus, the Venezuelan population in FL is reportedly massively pissed. Hope Charlie Crist hammers Little Eichmann HARD on this.

    BlueTowns.com: The voice of progressives in every town in America
     
    The legal ramifications around this are quickly mounting up. For a state where teachers are vastly underpaid, I don't think taxpayers are gonna love paying 12 million for a craven political stunt. Plus, the Venezuelan population in FL is reportedly massively pissed. Hope Charlie Crist hammers Little Eichmann HARD on this.

    BlueTowns.com: The voice of progressives in every town in America
    I agree with you, but this craven stunt cost about $615k, not $12M. $12M is the total amount in the Florida fund for transporting immigrants to other states, so they used over 5% of the annual amount just for this one stunt. I heard a report today saying that Florida wasn't getting enough immigrants coming into Florida, which is why he used the money to transport immigrants from another state. The bigger outrage is that Florida's funds are being used to pay for Texas immigrants to be transported. I doubt that Florida's citizens expect their money to be given to other states.
     
    615k from FL taxpayers to run a political stunt with refugees that weren’t even in FL, but were in TX. I cannot imagine that anyone who is actually a conservative would think that’s okay.

    And that‘s just the monetary side, leaving aside the actual jackass side of treating people in distress that way.
     
    What needs to be repeated, often and loudly, is that these are refugees. They did not enter the country illegally. They are seeking refuge from socialism in Venezuela and then treated like this? It’s cruel - needlessly so. They were promised expedited work on their status and told they were going to a welcome center and that jobs were waiting for them. Then dropped off on the tarmac without even knowing where they were. DeSantis made sure to send a videographer though, presumably to record his “ownage” of the libs. What a complete jackass move.

    They are not "refugees from socialism". Claiming refugee status over socialism is, well...
     
    Whenever I need a simple reminder that these holier-than-thou "1A" lover GOP christofascists are full of shirt, I just look such hack-ish political stunts. Would Jesus do something like this or would he welcome these people in? That's all you need to know that Abbott and DeSantis are not true men of faith.
     
    Whenever I need a simple reminder that these holier-than-thou "1A" lover GOP christofascists are full of shirt, I just look such hack-ish political stunts. Would Jesus do something like this or would he welcome these people in? That's all you need to know that Abbott and DeSantis are not true men of faith.
    Well said.

    I would also like to add that whatever your stance on immigration and how the current administration is handling it, what Republicans are doing is inhumane and reprehensible! These are still human beings not forking props to be used to score political points.

    Much respect goes out to the citizens of Martha's Vineyard for stepping up and showing these people some humanity.
     
    Tom Nichols in his newsletter today called this DeSantis move “a sadistic immigration stunt”

    Here’s a paragraph from the email:

    “I am against illegal immigration. But I am against the intentional tormenting of other human beings—especially children—even more. If my choice is the current mess or an immigration system run by ruthless opportunists such as Ron DeSantis—a man dancing on a chain while Tucker Carlson cranks the racist street organ—it’s not even close: I’ll stick with what we have. And I will never support anything, in any way, that runs the risk of handing power to people like DeSantis or his MAGA base.”

    I really think his description of DeSantis is particularly apt. Oh, and he also calls him one of the thirstiest politicians in America, lol.
     
    Whenever I need a simple reminder that these holier-than-thou "1A" lover GOP christofascists are full of shirt, I just look such hack-ish political stunts. Would Jesus do something like this or would he welcome these people in? That's all you need to know that Abbott and DeSantis are not true men of faith.

    I’m pretty sure you go to Hell for intentionally doing that to people.
     
    Does Florida have a competitive bidding requirements?

    Because if they do, he violated state law by not posting a Request for Proposals in at least tow publications, receive a minimum of three bids, waiting the requisite 14 days, and since it was a lump sum the Lowest Complete Bid must be selected.

    If this process was not followed, that is a misappropriation of funds and can be penalized up to a felony
     
    Does Florida have a competitive bidding requirements?

    Because if they do, he violated state law by not posting a Request for Proposals in at least tow publications, receive a minimum of three bids, waiting the requisite 14 days, and since it was a lump sum the Lowest Complete Bid must be selected.

    If this process was not followed, that is a misappropriation of funds and can be penalized up to a felony
    I believe I read that 2 bids are required - so possibly yes, unless they can find another bid.
     
    Also - it now appears that some DHS employees were possibly in on the scheme. They falsified paperwork (allegedly) by putting down false addresses for the migrants who were sent to MV. Some of the people that were stranded on MV have deadlines to report to ICE on Monday in random towns across the country - Tacoma, WA, in Florida or DC. If they don’t report on time they could be permanently barred from the US. Obviously this was a cruel, sadistic stunt.

     

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