Too often in today’s America we approach nearly everything from the lens of partisan politics.
However, in the real world — you remember the real world, we used to live it all the time before we were convinced to hate each other — most of the time, actual issues boil down to serious matters of laws and public policy, not political posturing.
With that mind, let’s ponder the laws of the United States of America, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ apparent lack of knowledge of those laws, and his repeated habit of behaving like a snake-oil salesman to mask his own ignorance and lawless delusions.
Two weeks ago, DeSantis used taxpayer-funded time and dollars to recruit asylum seekers in Texas to fly on a privately chartered plane to Martha’s Vineyard to make a political statement.
While we have strong opinions about the morality of using exhausted and powerless asylum seekers as pawns in games of political showmanship, let’s just focus on the facts.
The DeSantis flights had 48 migrants on board, including men, women and children. Most of them started their transcontinental journey in Venezuela, a country governed illegitimately by the tyrannical dictator Nicolás Maduro.
The characterization of Maduro as a tyrannical dictator is not a matter of debate, politics or speculation.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization have all documented instances of torture, arbitrary imprisonment and extrajudicial killings of people who speak out, in any way, against the Maduro regime.
In January 2019, the Organization of American States (OAS) passed a resolution “to not recognize the legitimacy of Nicolás Maduro’s new term” as president.
And between August 2019 and March 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to impose a total economic embargo against Venezuela and indicted Maduro and the chief justice of the Supreme Tribunal on charges of drug trafficking, narcoterrorism, and corruption.
That Venezuelans are persecuted, tortured, and murdered by the Maduro regime are facts that Republicans, Democrats and independents alike agree on in the United States.
U.S. federal law allows people attempting to escape violent political persecution to come to the United States to seek asylum. If they surrender themselves to immigration officials immediately upon entry, they are legally allowed to enter and live in the country temporarily while they await a hearing on their claim of asylum. If they follow the required processes and procedures, their legal right to be here is not a matter of opinion or politics, it is a matter of law.
And, as a matter of fact, the vast majority of the 48 Venezuelans who DeSantis’ flew to Martha’s Vineyard had all followed the correct procedures. They had escaped persecution, torture and near-certain death. Until a judge rules otherwise, they have a legal right to be in the land of opportunity and begin to build new lives.
So it made sense that when they arrived in the U.S., they were greeted warmly by a woman named Perla. According to the migrants, she offered them a free trip to Massachusetts, three months of rent, assistance with getting their asylum paperwork in order and a guarantee of work.
They agreed. She took them to a San Antonio hotel for four days and gave them meals. They were then flown to Martha’s Vineyard.
The rest is history. The Venezuelans’ arrival on the island was a surprise to everyone involved except DeSantis and Perla.
The left denounced the flight as shockingly immoral while the right, including DeSantis himself, defended the decision by saying that they are simply making good on the promises of “sanctuary cities” that invited the migrants and are best equipped to serve them.
In fact, since the infamous flight, DeSantis has repeatedly justified his actions by invoking the words “sanctuary cities.” But either DeSantis is delusional or he doesn’t understand what the words sanctuary city actually mean — a blunder of epic proportions for a man spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money on a campaign highlighting that exact phrase.
Legally, sanctuary cities limit their cooperation with the federal government’s efforts to enforce immigration law. Here in the United States, sanctuary cities are legally allowed to decline to work with federal immigration officials under the constitutional principal of federalism, which expressly gives states the right to spend their money as they see fit.
What we must remember is that sanctuary cities are only applicable if a person is in the country illegally, because the lack of cooperation with federal law enforcement is only relevant if a person is breaking the law. The Venezuelans weren’t. They were in the United States legally, sanctuary city or not.
It also means that when the migrants accepted Perla’s offer of three months’ rent, a guaranteed job and a flight to Martha’s Vineyard, Perla — and by extension, DeSantis — entered into a legally binding contract.
The “Contract Law 101” page of the University of Texas at San Antonio website — yes, the exact city and state where Perla made the offer — describes how a legally enforceable contract requires the following elements:
1. An offer. If you get on this plane, I’ll give you lodging and a guaranteed job on the other end.
2. An acceptance. Sounds great, you’ve got a deal.
3. Mutual consideration. Perla provided temporary lodging until the plane was ready and the plane flew to the Vineyard.
4. Legal parties. The people involved in the contract cannot be legally barred from entering into the agreement.
5.The contract cannot further a criminal purpose such as illegal immigration.Legal purpose.
As you can see, in this case all the elements of a legally binding contract were met. That means DeSantis owes 48 Venezuelan immigrants three months of rent and some form of employment. And to their credit, the migrants are suing him for fraud.
Moreover, DeSantis owes them an apology.
His failure to fulfill his end of the bargain is no better than that imaginary Nigerian prince offering to share his country’s riches if you simply email him your bank account information and send $5,000 to cover his expenses. Except DeSantis’ deception is even worse. He intentionally sought out people escaping torture and death, used them to get what he wanted, and delivered none of his promises to them in return.
And those are the facts. Not politics. Just the law and the facts.