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Since their unexpected arrival last month — and following a brief stay at Joint Base Cape Cod — 47 of the Martha’s Vineyard migrants have found housing in Massachusetts.
“They are now living in Lowell, Brockton, Stoughton, Provincetown, and other towns on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard,” Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), confirmed in an email to Boston.com. The non-profit legal organization is representing several of the migrants.
Last week, the Texas sheriff leading an investigation into the migrants’ transport from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard certified that the migrants were all victims of a crime.
The certifications from Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar’s office open the door for the migrants to apply for U-visas, special visas only available to victims of certain crimes. Salazar previously asserted that the migrants were lured onto the flights under false pretenses.
LCR also filed a class action lawsuit last month against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who took credit for the flights — and other “accomplices.”
Documents released on Friday show that top staffers in the DeSantis administration, including Chief of Staff James Uthmeier, were directly involved in the transport, Politico reported.
In the two weeks leading up to the flights, Uthmeier sent texts and had phone calls with Larry Keefe, Florida’s public safety czar, according to Politico. The messages make it clear that Keefe was on the ground in Texas to help coordinate the flights — with Uthmeier’s full support, the news outlet reported.
“Wheels up,” Keefe reportedly texted Uthmeier the day of the first flight to Martha’s Vineyard.
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