Republican governors’ decision to transport migrants across the country, as part of a political statement against the Biden administration's immigration policies, has raised a host of legal questions.
As a result, immigration advocates are determined to explore as many options as possible, as they believe there are grounds for lawsuits.
Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have transported more than 10,000 migrants to Democratic-run cities to bring national attention to the record crossings at the southern border.
“The grounds for smuggling is that many of these individuals aren't aware of where they were going. So they were fraudulently led onto these buses and told to go places where they might get work authorization, where they're not being welcome or rewarded,” former presidentof the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Allen Orr, told Spectrum News.
A federal class-action lawsuit has already been filed on behalf of the migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts by Florida Gov. DeSantis, who has taken credit for the operation. Those migrants claim they were recruited in San Antonio and misled about getting jobs and housing.
“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” DeSantis’s office said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. “If these activists spent even a fraction of this time and effort at the border, perhaps some accountability would be brought to the Biden Administration’s reckless border policies.”
The sheriff of Bexar County, Texas, has also launched a criminal investigation into the matter.
“The allegations that we’ve heard is absolutely distasteful. It’s disgusting,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar recently said. “It’s an abuse of human rights. But I would like to find out sooner than later what charges, if any, are going to apply and to whom.”
But some legal experts say there’s a high threshold to prove certain crimes, and it all depends on the facts of the case.
“It can be really difficult because the migrants have to prove the intent that there was an intent to discriminate against them, or an intent to deprive them of their rights. So that can often be really difficult to prove in lawsuits,” Angela Morrison, a professor of law at Texas A&M University, told Spectrum News.
“If there was fraud or deceit in the way that the migrants were induced (to) travel, then there could potentially be some claims, there’s some different criminal or civil charges that the Department of Justice could bring from kidnapping,” Morrison added.
“These charges about interference with civil rights. There’s charges... both civil and criminal interfering with the federal government’s ability to enforce or affect immigration law,” Morrison continued.
When asked about possible legal options, White House officials deferred to the Justice Department.
“We are taking steps to secure the border,” said White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan. “We are taking steps to address the regional migration challenge but lowering migrants under false pretenses and abandoning children on the side of the road with no heads up to city or state officials.”
Hasan said sending migrants to democratic-run cities “is not the solution to a global challenge,” adding, “that is not how you’re going to solve this problem.”
While some groups are looking into kidnapping charges, civil rights violations, or misuse of taxpayer dollars, one immigration attorney argues the key question isn’t about states versus the federal government, but humanity versus cruelty: The migrants were processed by the federal government, and many are seeking asylum.
“The busing doesn’t solve for overcrowding, it doesn’t solve for immigration, it doesn’t solve for the humanity that exists,” said Allen Orr, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It doesn’t solve for the workforce that we could be doing. It doesn’t solve for overall immigration reform. So it’s just political theater. Let’s talk solutions.”