Attorneys representing migrants who were shipped to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are pushing back against an effort to move a lawsuit against the Republican and his top deputies out of Massachusetts and into Florida.
Lawyers for the roughly 50 South American migrants who were shipped north in the fall with no notice to locals on the Vineyard argue a judge should reject changing the venue of the lawsuit, which accuses DeSantis of facilitating a “fraudulent and illegal scheme,” breaking federal law, and violating Constitutional rights.
The migrants, their lawyers wrote in court documents filed this week, did not choose where legal action would take place — the DeSantis administration did.
“Defendants chose to send class plaintiffs to Massachusetts, and Martha’s Vineyard specifically, because they believed it presented the ideal conditions to abandon the individual plaintiffs, catch a small community off guard, generate the most media coverage, and harm their political opponents,” lawyers for the migrants wrote.
If DeSantis, his administration, and private companies accused of helping transport the migrants wanted to “‘protect litigants, witnesses and the public against unnecessary inconvenience and expense,’ they could have chosen to forgo this scheme and leave the individual plaintiffs alone entirely,” court documents said.
“Instead, defendants manufactured this stunt from beginning to end — recruiting individuals in Texas to highlight an issue supposedly affecting Florida, choosing the island where former President Obama owns property — and now feign indignance that they should have to answer for their actions and may be held responsible in the district that they targeted,” the migrants’ lawyers said.
Lawyers for the DeSantis administration argued Massachusetts law allowing courts to gain personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants does not apply to state government entities.
The attorneys also argue the DeSantis administration and other defendants would have a “burden of appearing” because they are 1,300-plus miles away in Florida. They also argue Massachusetts has “minimal” interest in adjudicating the dispute.
And the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts “lacks personal jurisdiction” over Florida state defendants “for the independent reason that sovereign immunity prohibits Massachusetts from haling [sic] a sister state and its officials into Massachusetts courts.”
“To be sure, the planes landed in Massachusetts. But plaintiffs’ claims all arose before the plane touched down,” attorneys for the DeSantis administration argue in court documents.
The migrants landed on Martha’s Vineyard on flights that originated in San Antonio, Texas, and made brief stops in Florida.
Their arrival on the tiny, up-scale island had local officials scrambling to provide shelter, health care, and legal assistance. But community members rallied, housing the group until they were eventually transferred to Joint Base Cape Cod for a short period of time.
DeSantis quickly claimed credit, arguing the decision to send migrants to New England was made to highlight challenges state officials face on the southern border. The migrants, DeSantis has argued in the past, would find more opportunities in northern states like Massachusetts.
But lawyers representing the migrants shot back, saying the flights were illegal, the migrants were “targeted and induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses,” and accused DeSantis and his transportation secretary, Jared Perdue, of interfering with the “orderly administration of the federal immigration system.
“Defendants and their unidentified accomplices designed and executed a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme centered on exploiting this vulnerability for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests,” the lawsuit said.