DeSantis doesn’t have to own up to latest migrant flights. The buzz is political gold | Opinion

The governor of Florida hasn’t taken credit, but the two flights that landed in Sacramento, California, with Texas migrants aboard have all the hallmarks of a DeSantis & Co. production.

When he pulled a similar stunt last fall, flying migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Gov. DeSantis bragged about it, as if it was just the cutest thing.

It wasn’t. Choosing to not see the humanity of the people he was duping to score a political point — another disturbing hallmark of his administration — he got proxies on the ground in the Lone Star State to lure almost 50 migrants with promises of jobs and aid. After a brief touchdown in Florida, however, they were flown to the blue and progressive Vineyard. There, they were greeted by people who, though totally unaware the migrants were coming, actually treated them like human beings.

‘Kidnapping’

Monday, while California authorities continued to investigate — Attorney General Rob Bonta called it “state-sanctioned kidnapping” — Sheriff Javier Salazar, of Bexar County, Texas, wrapped up his own investigation into the September flights with a recommendation that criminal charges be filed against those who were part of the ground operation in his state.

DeSantis, so far, has been mum about the flights to Sacramento.

This time around, there were some differences, but the act still was undergirded by the same mean-spirited intentions.

This time, the stunt would be amply funded. The Florida Legislature handed over $10 million in a February special session to expand this relocation program to fly migrants from any state to another. The flights to the Vineyard cost us $612,000.

This time, the migrant landing may have been DeSantis’ poke in the eye to California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Both have a juvenile “did-not-did-too!” relationship from which they benefit at the expense of those of us hungering for some well-reasoned policy discourse.

And maybe DeSantis doesn’t have to say anything. This time, according to a spokesperson from the California attorney general’s office, 16 migrants deplaned on Friday with documents that indicated they arrived through a program run by the Florida Division of Emergency Management and its contractor, Vertol Systems Company. Vertol has the state contract to operate the program. Monday, another 20 migrants landed.

Attack from right

There’s another difference here: This time, DeSantis is officially seeking the Republican nomination for president — and needs to out-Trump former President Donald Trump with an even more-extreme stance against undocumented migrants.

In addition to the migrant flights, this year DeSantis signed legislation that makes it pretty much illegal to exist as an undocumented migrant in Florida, threatening anyone with arrest, including, of course, family members, who do so much as gives them ride.

Florida is not the only state to ship out migrants. Texas and others have bused them to sanctuary states, including New York. It’s their way of saying, “Not our responsibility.” Of course, that’s been the same stance as an irresponsible Congress has taken for far too long. For decades, it has shirked its role in bringing fairness and sanity to federal immigration policy, tamping out good-faith efforts from some lawmakers to make progress on the issue.

The Editorial Board made these same argument in September after the first migrant flight. We say now of these leaders, as we said then: “They should be ashamed of themselves, but they won’t be.

“They lost the capacity for that a long time ago.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 9:24 PM.