Should Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (et al.) be investigated for human trafficking?

No. It would be just as stupid a political stunt as his interstate deportation of migrants. It won’t go anywhere and will just add political fuel to his Presidential bid.

Supposedly they have the migrants signing documents that state they’re leaving voluntarily.

It’s a very shitty thing to do but it’s not human trafficking. The NIMBY attitude they find when they get there is shitty too.

@Blackwater_Park Can you site sources for the Not In My Backyard attitude you state they encountered. That’s an outright lie.

The local high school students studying Spanish translated for them. The community fed and housed the migrants until they could be transported to the mainland where more resources were available. Source

You are lying.

It does seem to fall under human trafficking:

https://www.justice.gov/humantrafficking/what-is-human-trafficking

i.e.:

* “involves compelling or coercing a person to provide labor or services”
* ”The coercion can be subtle or overt, physical or psychological.”
* ”... frequently prey on individuals who are poor, vulnerable, living in an unsafe or unstable situation, or are in search of a better life.”
* “Trafficking victims are deceived by false promises of love, a good job, or a stable life and are lured or forced into situations where they are made to work under deplorable conditions with little or no pay.”

The only grey area I see, is that the “work” the victims were made to do here, was to be involuntary pawns in a political stunt.

When people are promised something and what they are promised isn’t true, then it still falls under human trafficking. From what I read they were promised homes and jobs at their destination. Some wanted to go to other locations where there was family and they were told they could change planes and go to where they wanted to go. I’m not saying this is a fact but if they lied too then it’s human trafficking. If we start to shred what constitutes human trafficking then you can guarantee it will become worthless. But personally, I think DeSantis should get hit for stealing taxpayer money for a stunt to help him at the polls. There was no reason for DeSantis to get involved than for political gain. And if he didn’t do this through donations then he should be fired as Governor. This was a stunt for 2024 to help him when he runs for President.

No should about it; it’s an “is”. He is being investigated for human trafficking by a Texas sheriff of all things:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/20/desantis-migrant-flights-marthas-vineyard-investigation

You can approach this question from 2 directions. If you or I had done this: that is if we had lied to these people and transported them to a place under false pretenses, is it a crime? Keep in mind that these people under our laws have exactly the same rights as ourselves. They are entitled to the equal protection of our laws as you or I. Next is the fact that the governor IMPORTED these people from a state not his own EXCLUSIVELY to export them to a place in a 3rd state deliberately chosen for its lack of facilities to cope with them. Is the governor guilty of kidnapping or trafficking people across state lines? And better than that, has the governor exploited the powers of his office in facilitating the commission of a Federal crime as a publicity stunt in pursuit of his political advancement?

No.

It seems so familiar, right?

” The Biden administration is restarting what are known as “lateral flights,” in which migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in one area are transported to another part of the border and often sent back into Mexico from there, according to two immigrant advocacy groups familiar with the government’s decision.”

“Immigrants could be flown from the busy Rio Grande Valley or Del Rio, Texas, sectors into El Paso, for example, and then sent back across the border from there. Del Rio is 372 miles by air from El Paso.”
“The practice has been criticized by immigration advocates who say it makes some immigrants believe they will be able to stay in the U.S., only to find themselves expelled into an area of Mexico where they have no connections or resources to help them.”

“We should not be summarily expelling asylum seekers without any hearing but certainly should not also be increasing the cruelty and trauma by placing them on these internal flights without any understanding of what’s happening to them,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.”

“Gelernt said migrants are often led to think or come to believe they will be flown to a location in the U.S. where they will be allowed to stay. There have been reports of migrants being walked across the border back into Mexico after a lateral flight, only to find they are in a place they do not know and cannot reenter the U.S.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/biden-admin-again-flying-migrants-who-cross-border-one-place-n1271211

Great to see @cheebdragon finally on the side of civil rights and opposed to DeSantis using people for a publicity stunt!

@HP I’m not sure about exactly the same rights as a citizen, but yeah they have the same rights short of committing a crime. Not that I’m framing asylum seekers and other immigrants as criminal, I absolutely do not, but the rhetoric around immigrants being criminals is ridiculous and both political parties make me shake my head.

Even a green card holder can be stripped of their status and deported if they commit a felony, a citizen isn’t going to be sent out of the country unless they are recent citizens and found to have attained citizenship using deception, and that’s very rare.

The political divide over immigration is just politics as usual wedge issues to rile people up. Cherry picked reporting, it’s terrible.

We need to give more work visas and better ways for people to apply for safe passage and flights from their countries, not walking 1,000 miles. The US government could be collecting the $5k per person instead of giving it to coyotes.