On Tuesday (February 28), Florida Governor Ron DeSantis filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against him by Venezuelan immigrants who he flew to Martha’s Vineyard.
Following DeSantis’s authorization of about 50 migrants flying to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., the group filed several claims against the Florida Governor, other officials, and the aviation company facilitating the flights, claiming they violated their civil rights, among other things.
But DeSantis, alongside the other defendants, urged the federal judge in Massachusetts handling the case to dismiss it.
In the event the federal judge doesn’t dismiss the case, the defendants request it is transferred to a federal court in Florida.
Attorneys for DeSantis and the other defendants noted that before a determination could be made about the plausibility of the plaintiffs’ claims, the lawsuit has “insurmountable defects” regarding the “jurisdiction, standing, venue, and multiple immunity doctrines,” which need to be addressed.
DeSantis is one of a handful of Republican Governors who’ve relocated migrants to sanctuary cities to protest the Biden administration’s border policies.
Although other Governors have received criticisms for their actions, DeSantis, who flew the group from Texas to the affluent island of Martha’s Vineyard, got the brunt of most such complaints, with the consensus from Democrats being that the move is inhumane.
The suit bases its claim on the migrants boarding the planes — facilitated by Vertol Systems Company — under false pretenses, accusing DeSantis and other defendants of discrimination and false imprisonment.
But the defendants assert the lawsuit fails to make a claim that plaintiffs can bring before state or federal courts and, as a result, should be dismissed.
