It’s looking like some DHS officers falsified paperwork as part of this, so that seems like an obvious place to start - presumably their names can be figured out from the paperwork…
Yeah that - but what really gets under my skin is that the conservatives think what’s making the “libruls” so upset is that they had to deal with some brown people - when the thing that’s making people upset, that they can’t seem to comprehend, is the absolutely appalling way some human being were treated just for a dumb political stunt. The Republicans aren’t just assuming everyone is as intolerant as they are, but secretly are just as big assholes as they are.
DeSantis, meanwhile, has defended the legality of the practice, citing the creation of a $12 million program by the Florida state legislature in March using money earned from interest on COVID-19 pandemic relief funds to pay for private contractors “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens from this state.”
A spokesperson for DeSantis said in a statement that the funding of the program is “consistent with federal law.”
What gets under my skin is that there will be no consequences. If we all learned one thing from the orange asshole and Ken Paxton, it’s that running for office will absolve you of all crimes. You can delay justice indefinitely and you can appoint local and federal judges sympathetic to your cause while doing this.
I’m so unbelievably angry about how the last six years will take DECADES to fix.
I’m so over the fucking Republicans.
(OTOH, maybe we should all file papers to run for president so we can all have our own get out of jail cards?)
“If you take somebody and you move them from Point A to Point B against their will, that’s kidnapping,” said Marc Evans, a 28-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and a leading authority on human trafficking.
Knowing the funding source (possibly **FEMA money (!!!) with some bogus rationale being emergency use) could perhaps lead to the name of the person who ultimately authorized the shitshow.
** That possibility indexes with “consistent with federal law" claim made by DeSantis.
Maybe it’s time we stop nit-picking human suffering? But there is clear fraud going on and even if the point was not to gain financially from it, they were clearly using this as a political stunt to embolden their base. From that angle, then yeah - I’m betting this will be used for fund-raising for both DeSantis and Abbott, who are both in an election year.
They are totally unable to imagine that anyone will act any differently then they will in any and all situations. They lack any empathy for their fellow human beings and lack the imagination to think about other ways of being…
I feel like in any other context, if someone decided to kidnap and smuggle human beings pro malo…you know, just for the sadistic glee of it…it wouldn’t reduce the charges at all.
I wonder how that’s gonna work when he tries to plead ‘not guilty’ if/when he goes to trial for this bullshit.
Goddammit.
Now, Czar Abbott has to figure out a way to out-jackass DeSatan & squander more tax money in the process. I hope Beto starts raising more hell about this soon.
Drop 'em all off in front of Mar a Lago & tell 'em free food, booze & beds are inside.
If only…
Sure, but where’s the fun in that?
Besides, gotta out-jackass Czar Abbott…
They both have elections coming up. Gotta rile up that base!
There sure are. Some places are worse than others, some are better.
Not a chance.
It will be gawd’s punishment because of those evil Others… it’s always The Others.
And their deity is always angry about something.
Ah.
Pure cussedness, then. Makes sense.
Naw. They ain’t that smart.
It’s a DSW,
Both of those jackasses have ambitions.
i do see that’s true. it’s also worth i think pointing out the illegal spending and the lies.
part of his sales pitch to florida is that these asylum seekers in texas might one day have cost florida taxpayer money
even ignoring the morality of the issue, it’s a complete and utter lie. no: immigration isn’t taking money away, and no “northerners” aren’t either
for me, it also helps to remember everytime he says “costal elite”: he lives in a coastal state and he went to both yale and harvard. ( though maybe he’s angry biden wants to help him with his 20,000 in student loan debt )
at any rate, the doj better prosecute. the treatment of these people is unconscionable
Any prosecutor with the backbone to do so could easily make a case for an indictment on the basis that DeSantis trapped these people via deception and intimidation in order to exploit them for personal gain (as regards his career and fame). If he’s regularly made fundraising appeals citing this it would only make the case stronger, but money doesn’t have to be involved.
The nits will be picked in court, no doubt, but it is a legitimate case of alleged trafficking. Forcing this sadist to defend himself in an official public proceeding will be worth it.
Senator Markey has written to the Office of the Inspector General, asking for an investigation
On Wednesday evening, Florida used federal coronavirus aid to relocate 50 men, women, and children from the state to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. To execute this political stunt, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tapped a $12 million program that the Florida legislature created earlier this year to allow the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to “facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens out of Florida.” 2 Florida then employed this program to relocate the 50 immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.3 According to the Florida statute, however, the $12 million was funded through “the interest earnings associated with the federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund,” effectively using COVID-19 relief to score political points by exploiting vulnerable immigrants.
The use of federal COVID relief funds in this manner runs contrary to congressional intent and appears to violate federal law. Congress created the SLFRF to help state and local governmentsrecover from the public health and economic emergency caused by COVID-19.
…
Given the clear language in Treasury’s final rule and congressional intent in the American Rescue Plan Act, we request that you investigate Florida’s use of $12 million in taxpayer SLFRF funds to transport immigrants across the country. Allowing this program to continue sets a dangerous precedent for the misuse of SLFRF funds. States should not be permitted to use COVID-19 relief funds for any parochial interest unrelated to the pandemic, particularly for naked political conduct that imposes severe and unjust harms on disadvantaged groups ofindividuals.
But there is clear fraud going on and even if the point was not to gain financially from it, they were clearly using this as a political stunt to embolden their base. From that angle, then yeah - I’m betting this will be used for fund-raising for both DeSantis and Abbott, who are both in an election year.
