As a libertarian, fraud is one of the few non-violent acts I believe should be a crime, often shorthanded as “force, fraud, and abuse”. Whether or not they were lied to is the difference between it being voluntary or non-voluntary because it affects their ability to meaningfully consent. If they weren't lied to, then the victims of the thing are primarily just Floridian taxpayers who shelled out 12 million for a DeSantis 2024 primary campaign event.
There seems to be some evidence they were lied to, and I've got to admit, that surprises me for a plethora of reasons.
Sheer numbers and percentages. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 illegal immigrants come across the Texas border every single day, and out of a group that large it shouldn't be that hard to find a small handful that want just about any specific thing.
Conditions. On any given day, you can find literally thousands of migrants sleeping under a single bridge, with inadequate necessities and services. You would think that the choice between that bridge and Martha's Vineyard, or between being where the system is overloaded and somewhere that isn't, would be an easy choice. I mean... if only a handful of immigrants come at any time to a densely populated city or state with a robust social safety net system for current residents, that's not something that should come even close to overloading capacity in the way capacity is strained at any border town.
Protection. Sanctuary cities claim to not work with ICE and to offer safety from federal immigration law enforcement. You can say moving some of these migrants north takes them further away from where their immigration hearings are set to be, but let's face it... many illegal immigrants have no plans to make any of those hearings. This is especially true of the resent influx of Venezuelans, fleeing socialism and oppression and violence and fearful of what deportation could mean for their safety. Involvement in the legal process is far riskier for a group like that than somebody who just wants better opportunity or living conditions that hails from a country with less of that.
Connections and opportunity. I used to live in Chicago, and spent a goodly amount of time in Pilsen. I knew plenty with family that wanted to come here, I'm sure there are still plenty of immigrants who have family in various cities and states up north, and I'm sure that's true of Massachusetts as well. When it comes to finding employment, the border towns have no shortage of people willing to work, and that becomes generally less true the further from the border one travels, providing more employment opportunities.
DeSantis himself. I don't have much love for DeSantis. What I think of when I think of him is his insistence of inserting himself into emotionally resonant cultural issues, and choosing to address them by making theatrical points rather than reasoned public policy changes. Sure, I'd rather live in Florida under a DeSantis regime than California under Newsom, while they've been using one another as convenient opposition on a national stage. But I don't like how he portrays himself as a human being. That said, none of my DeSantis opposition has to do with thinking he's dumb. He seems like a smart sort, even, and I think I've compared him to being like Trump if Trump wasn't a moron. It seems that he'd be well aware of the 1-4 I mentioned, as well as the legal liability that could come with fraud if he wasn't transparent while pulling off this stunt... and it shouldn't have been necessary.
That's why I've been so skeptical of the charges. There are plenty of reasons for many people in Texas illegally to accept a free plane ride or bus ride to sanctuaries in northern states. I'm sure that even in Dallas, which is pretty far from the southern border in Texas, I could probably find, myself, a handful of people here illegally who would be willing to get free transport so some of the cities that Florida, Texas, and Arizona have been sending them to... on any random Thursday afternoon. There are plenty of reasons to believe DeSantis would be both aware of that and aware of potential legal liability if he cut corners and mislead migrants just to get a group together slightly more quickly than just telling the truth.
Maybe I'm giving DeSantis too much credit on intelligence. Maybe he made a mistake and trusted the wrong coyote after impressing on her the need to keep it all above board. Hell... maybe he welcomes a legal challenge as only increasing his standing and keeping his stunt in the news longer. I'm opposed to Florida tax dollars being used to address violations of federal law in a state that doesn't even so much as border Florida, I don't like how it feels to use people as political props/pawns even if it makes for effective trolling or cynical meme warfare politics... but all that aside it just seems like if there were lies, they were completely unnecessary.