A group of immigrants flown from Texas to Martha's Vineyard on Sept. 14 have filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts claiming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others enticed them to board a pair of planes with false promises of help, housing and financial assistance.

The plaintiffs — identified as Yanet Doe, Pablo Doe and Jesus Doe, along with aid organization Alianza Americas and other unnamed immigrants — filed the class-action suit Tuesday against DeSantis, Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the department itself and several unnamed individuals.

The individuals who filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Massachusetts District Court say their recent entry into the United States made them vulnerable to bad actors, and accused DeSantis of taking advantage of them while they were in that state.

"In or around September 2022, 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. "This scheme involved the unidentified Doe Defendants, acting in concert with the named Defendants, identifying and targeting class members by trolling streets outside of a migrant shelter in Texas and other similar locales, pretending to be good Samaritans offering humanitarian assistance."

The plaintiffs allege that they — then suffering from "chronic food insecurity" — were plied with $10 McDonald's gift certificates to gain their trust. 

"... The Doe Defendants then made false promises and false representations that if Plaintiffs and class members were willing to board airplanes to other states, they would receive employment, housing, educational opportunities, and other like assistance upon their arrival."

They claim individuals working for DeSantis put them up in hotels to remove them from legitimate assistance at migrant centers "and from the possibility of actual good Samaritans finding out how the class members were being abused," and also to wait until enough migrants were "rounded up" to fill two airplanes. 

At a total cost of $615,000 — or about $12,300 per passenger — the group alleges that they were put on the pair of airplanes and told they were flying to Boston or Washington D.C. They also claim they were given a shiny red folder containing "official-looking materials" that promised even more assistance.

Instead, they say their final destination was the island of Martha's Vineyard, and instead of finding employment, housing, educational opportunities and other assistance they say they were promised before leaving Texas, the migrants say they were "completely abandoned" when they arrived in Massachusetts.

"Once the individual Plaintiffs and class members landed, it became clear that the promises made to induce them on the planes were in fact bold-faced lies," the lawsuit said.

"... The chartered airplanes dropped Plaintiffs off on Martha's Vineyard in the evening, with no food, water or shelter," the court filing said. "No one on Martha's Vineyard — or, on information and belief — anywhere in Massachusetts — knew they were coming."

DeSantis takes credit

DeSantis' communications director, Taryn Fenske, released a statement hours after the planes landed, calling those on board "illegal immigrants" and claiming responsibility for the flights.

"Florida can confirm the two planes with illegal immigrants that arrived in Martha’s Vineyard today were part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations. States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as “sanctuary states” and support for the Biden Administration’s open border policies. 

As you know, in this past legislative session the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of illegal immigrants from this state consistent with federal law.

Florida’s immigration relocation program both targets human smugglers found in Florida and preempts others from entering."

Since the flight, DeSantis has defended the plan, saying the migrants had signed consent forms before getting on the plane.

During a stop in Bradenton, Fla., to discuss tax relief proposals Tuesday, the governor said he stands by the decision to fly the migrants to Martha's Vineyard, and he also was critical of President Biden’s border security.

"Because it's our view that one, the border should be secure,” he said. “And we want to have Biden re-institute policies like 'Remain in Mexico' and making sure that people aren't overwhelming. But short of that, if you believe in open borders, then it's the sanctuary jurisdictions that should have to bear the brunt of the open borders."

In response to the lawsuit, DeSantis' office released a statement Tuesday night that lambasted the Biden administration's border policies and reasserted that migrants on the two planes signed consent forms before takeoff.

As part of the statement, Fenske released a redacted copy of one of the signed consent forms.

On the form — which was presented in English and Spanish — the individual agreed to be transported "to locations outside of Texas, to locations in sanctuary States."

The form did not say specifically that Martha's Vineyard was the final destination, but did indicate that the flight would end up in Massachusetts.

"The transportation of the immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard was done on a voluntary basis," the statement said, in part. "The immigrants were homeless, hungry, and abandoned — and these activists didn’t care about them then. Florida’s program gave them a fresh start in a sanctuary state and these individuals opted to take advantage of chartered flights to Massachusetts."

Relocation backlash

During a Sept. 15 speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Gala, President Joe Biden lashed out at DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — who has, in the past, dispatched numerous buses carrying migrants to Washington, New York and Chicago.

“Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props,” Biden said. “What they're doing is simply wrong. It's un-American, it's reckless.

“We have a process in place to manage migrants at the border,” the president continued. “We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and humane. Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts.”

A Texas sheriff has also announced that he has opened a criminal investigation into the flights to determine if any laws were broken.

“I believe there is some criminal activity involved here,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said. “But at present we are trying to keep an open mind and we are going to investigate to find out what exact laws were broken if that does turn out to be the case.”

DeSantis’ office responded with a statement that said the migrants had been given more options to succeed in Massachusetts.

“Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ’left to fend for themselves,” Fenske wrote in the statement. “Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected.”

Tuesday's lawsuit alleges that the defendants violated the plaintiffs' Fourth and 14th Amendment rights, violated the Constitution's Supremacy Clause, deprived them of their civil rights, and illegally used funds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to fund Florida's $12 million immigrant relocation program; and accused them of false imprisonment, fraud, negligent infliction of emotion distress, and several other charges.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages and to prohibit DeSantis and the other defendants from "inducing immigrants to travel across state lines by fraud and misrepresentation."