Originally published at: Gavin Newsom accuses Ron DeSantis of kidnapping migrants: "You small, pathetic man…" | Boing Boing
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“@RonDeSantis, you small, pathetic man,” he tweeted last night. “This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?”
Lock him up. Next to Orangina.
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A few times it’s been raised that this would be kidnapping or trafficking, by both DeSantis and Abbott. Nothing else has happened.
Would like to see more than words.
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well, there is this:
here’s hoping it gets somewhere. desantis (and abbott) need to go down in flames.
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The fact that DeSantis would go to such lengths as tricking migrants in Texas, which doesn’t even border Florida, so he could dump them in a blue state. . . how is that anything but a stunt? Even if you are a conservative Floridian who is anti-immigrant, how does that benefit your state in any way? It’s not about benefiting your state, it’s about punishing your enemies, be they migrants or Democrats.
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The most important take-away from this: they do not think of migrants as people. To them, they’re a plague to be “solved”.
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Los Angeles Times:
The question is whether Newsom will follow through with legal action over the interstate transportation of migrants or risk being accused of using the incident to stage his own version of political theater as the two governors jockey for national attention.
No matter what you think of Newsom’s opinions, DeSantis, Abbott, and the rest of the gang are being highly vocal and celebratory about what they’re doing. Criticism of mobster behavior is not just political theater.
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That’s some serious “bothsides” shit.
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There was at least some tiny seed of cruel, right-wing logic to the Martha’s Vineyard stunt, i.e. “let’s see how you out-of-touch coastal elites deal with migrants when they show up in your state instead of ours.”
Shipping migrants to California doesn’t even make sense by that standard, because California already has more undocumented people than any other state. Our elected officials don’t spend as much time attacking and dehumanizing them.
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The reason I’m not expecting that to go anywhere is this phrase:
““At this time, the case is being reviewed by the DA’s office. Once an update is available, it will be provided to the public.”
Right now, that same office is a little busy with their boss’ impeachment.
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Yeah, that’s the job of anyone who’s in charge of farming or food production in California. 
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It’d be wonderful if California could put out an arrest warrant for kidnapping on DeSantis that would prevent him campaigning in the richest and most powerful state in the Union.
I know - I know, there are probably a thousand reasons why this can’t happen, but give me my little pleasures.
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Does what DeSantis has done rise to the level of domestic terrorism? If we’re dreaming, freezing the finances of a known terrorist organization is a relatively standard practice isn’t it? Imagine if his campaign was completely unable to spend or receive donations.
Summarizing (as a layman, not a lawyer) the definition of domestic terrorism from the US code, his actions took place in the territory of the United States. It seems pretty clear (from DeSantis’s statements) that his actions were an attempt to influence government policy. That leaves whether his actions were illegal and risked injury or death to people.
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Oh, Pudding Fingers, we hardly knew ye.
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Several crimes against humanity, last time I checked. If only the Democrats would repeal the American Service-Members’ Protection Act.
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It would be amusing, but likely irrelevant as CA is (like most states) is a winner take all electoral collage state, and DeSantis has no chance of winning CA. So if he avoids stopping in CA it basically just leaves him more time to focus on places he might be able to win.
I’m not saying DeSantis has no chance of getting any votes in CA (I moved out of a red part of CA last year, many many trump posters/bumperstickers), just no chance of carrying CA.
Probably technically, yes. Flying has some inherent risk, but more so sending someone with no funds off to a state they have no roots in has a likelihood of causing some injury, and a slim chance of death. However I expect courts would apply a pretty high bar to “attempt to influence government policy” in part because he is a sitting governor and expected to influence government policy, and in part because he is an old white dude. I would assume that would be expressed by holding “risked injury or death” to a very high standard, and maybe “illegal” as well.
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I’m not an immigration lawyer, but don’t these migrants all have pending asylum cases in Texas, and isn’t this stunt going to interfere with their ability to appear in immigration court?
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Remember, this is the GQP. Feature, not bug.
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From the previous “stunt”
SELLSTROM: Well, we are still in the midst of providing our full range of legal assistance. First of all, individuals need help with their individual immigration cases. One of the truly appalling parts of this whole incident is that people are now far away from where they need to be in order to appear for immigration hearings. They were told again by folks who were pretending to offer assistance that the immigration issues would be taken care of. When they were concerned about leaving Texas, where they knew that they had to go for an immigration hearing, some as early as Monday, that was a deep concern to our clients. And they were told they didn’t have to worry about that. Now, of course, they do, and we are helping them to resolve those issues.
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There are plenty of California Republicans who have money.
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