After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) flew dozens of migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, immigration lawyer Rachel Self rushed to the church where the group was staying. Soon she was inundated with phone calls.
The owner of a local seafood company offered to employ the new arrivals. Reporters left dozens of messages. Anonymous callers threatened violence. As quickly as she emptied her voice mail, Self said, it filled up again. Offers of help, reporters, threats.
One caller stood out: a man who introduced himself as Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County in Texas. He said he understood she had ties to the migrants. He wanted to explore whether the way they had been recruited onto the planes made them victims of a crime.
Self was intrigued but suspicious: After they spoke for the first time, she asked the sheriff to email her to make sure that he was who he said he was. He did, copying senior members of his staff, including the chief of his organized crime unit.
Once they landed on Martha's Vineyard, the migrants received support from local churches and nonprofits. (Dominic Chavez for The Washington Post)
In the ensuing weeks, the sheriff in San Antonio and the lawyer from Martha’s Vineyard would forge an unusual partnership as Salazar launched an investigation and gathered evidence from the migrants. Their work produced an unexpected outcome to the migrants’ long journeys. The group of 49 people, nearly all from Venezuela, became eligible for a type of visa available only to victims of crimes who are assisting in law enforcement investigations, a process that also shields them from deportation.
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The individuals who orchestrated the flights sought to “demean these people and make them a public spectacle,” Salazar, 52, said. “And I find it ironic that all they did was enable these people to now stay in the country.”
Self, 45, was born in New York and had a brief career in acting before becoming a lawyer. She runs a private practice handling criminal defense and immigration cases from an office in downtown Boston, but lives on Chappaquiddick Island at the eastern edge of Martha’s Vineyard.
For months, Salazar, a Democrat, had watched as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) bused migrants to cities such as New York and Washington. While Salazar said he finds the policy “objectionable,” he doesn’t see anything illegal about it, because there weren’t signs the migrants were deceived.
The case of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by DeSantis was different, he said. The DeSantis administration used operatives in Texas to recruit the group with false promises of jobs and housing, according to lawyers representing the migrants. It chartered two private planes that departed from San Antonio and stopped in Florida before landing in Martha’s Vineyard, a vacation destination that has a year-round population of 20,000. Authorities in Massachusetts had no idea the group was coming.
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Salazar noted that the migrants were in the country legally pending immigration proceedings. If they had been recruited onto the planes with false promises, that deception could be criminal. He said the migrants had “already been taken advantage of” on their journeys by smugglers and cartels, and “now a government official is launching a million-dollar operation to come hunt them down and lie to them?” Salazar said. “No. Not in my county.”
In September, DeSantis — a potential 2024 presidential candidate — appeared on Fox News and said the migrants had signed consent forms and their decision to go was “clearly voluntary.” Months earlier, DeSantis had foreshadowed his plan. He told reporters that if migrants were sent to Martha’s Vineyard or to President Biden’s home state of Delaware, the border “would be secure the next day.”
T0 determine what exactly happened to the migrants, Salazar needed his investigators to interview them. That’s when he called Self.
The day after the migrants arrived, the lawyer stood outside the small Episcopal church where they were staying and addressed reporters. To the people who had found themselves “plane-wrecked” in her community, Self offered solidarity. “We’ve got you. We’ve got your back,” she said.
A migrant landed on Martha's Vineyard. A resident jumped in to help.
At the time, Self was reeling from the loss of her brother, who had died of complications from covid the month before. Without realizing it, she was echoing some of the same phrases that she had used to reassure him while he was in the hospital.
Self, who has appeared as a legal analyst on Fox News, had prior experience in the media glare. But she had never received such specific threats to her safety that she felt compelled to report them to the police. Her partner, Billy Gazaille, began accompanying her everywhere and carrying a gun in their truck.
After Self and Salazar’s initial conversation, the sheriff followed up with an email copying his senior staff. Self and other lawyers working with the migrants — Susan Church, Julio Henríquez, Emily Leung and Adriana Lafaille — arranged for the adults to be interviewed via video by members of the sheriff’s organized crime unit. The interviews took place in three rooms over two days at Joint Base Cape Cod, where the migrants were housed after leaving Martha’s Vineyard.
Salazar is investigating whether the people who carried out the plan in Texas broke a law that makes it illegal to restrict someone’s movements without their consent whether by force or deception, an offense called “unlawful restraint.”
More at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/17/marthas-vineyard-migrants-desantis/
The owner of a local seafood company offered to employ the new arrivals. Reporters left dozens of messages. Anonymous callers threatened violence. As quickly as she emptied her voice mail, Self said, it filled up again. Offers of help, reporters, threats.
One caller stood out: a man who introduced himself as Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County in Texas. He said he understood she had ties to the migrants. He wanted to explore whether the way they had been recruited onto the planes made them victims of a crime.
Self was intrigued but suspicious: After they spoke for the first time, she asked the sheriff to email her to make sure that he was who he said he was. He did, copying senior members of his staff, including the chief of his organized crime unit.
Once they landed on Martha's Vineyard, the migrants received support from local churches and nonprofits. (Dominic Chavez for The Washington Post)
In the ensuing weeks, the sheriff in San Antonio and the lawyer from Martha’s Vineyard would forge an unusual partnership as Salazar launched an investigation and gathered evidence from the migrants. Their work produced an unexpected outcome to the migrants’ long journeys. The group of 49 people, nearly all from Venezuela, became eligible for a type of visa available only to victims of crimes who are assisting in law enforcement investigations, a process that also shields them from deportation.
DeSantis move to fly migrants to Mass. stokes confusion, outrage from critics
The individuals who orchestrated the flights sought to “demean these people and make them a public spectacle,” Salazar, 52, said. “And I find it ironic that all they did was enable these people to now stay in the country.”
‘Not in my county’
Salazar and Self made an improbable pair. Salazar grew up in Universal City, a northern suburb of San Antonio, and spent more than two decades in the San Antonio Police Department, where he worked in narcotics and internal affairs, eventually heading the public integrity unit. In 2016, he was elected sheriff of Bexar County, which has a population of 2 million.Self, 45, was born in New York and had a brief career in acting before becoming a lawyer. She runs a private practice handling criminal defense and immigration cases from an office in downtown Boston, but lives on Chappaquiddick Island at the eastern edge of Martha’s Vineyard.
For months, Salazar, a Democrat, had watched as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) bused migrants to cities such as New York and Washington. While Salazar said he finds the policy “objectionable,” he doesn’t see anything illegal about it, because there weren’t signs the migrants were deceived.
The case of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard by DeSantis was different, he said. The DeSantis administration used operatives in Texas to recruit the group with false promises of jobs and housing, according to lawyers representing the migrants. It chartered two private planes that departed from San Antonio and stopped in Florida before landing in Martha’s Vineyard, a vacation destination that has a year-round population of 20,000. Authorities in Massachusetts had no idea the group was coming.
Immigration pivot shows Biden facing hard reality of border politics
Salazar noted that the migrants were in the country legally pending immigration proceedings. If they had been recruited onto the planes with false promises, that deception could be criminal. He said the migrants had “already been taken advantage of” on their journeys by smugglers and cartels, and “now a government official is launching a million-dollar operation to come hunt them down and lie to them?” Salazar said. “No. Not in my county.”
In September, DeSantis — a potential 2024 presidential candidate — appeared on Fox News and said the migrants had signed consent forms and their decision to go was “clearly voluntary.” Months earlier, DeSantis had foreshadowed his plan. He told reporters that if migrants were sent to Martha’s Vineyard or to President Biden’s home state of Delaware, the border “would be secure the next day.”
T0 determine what exactly happened to the migrants, Salazar needed his investigators to interview them. That’s when he called Self.
The day after the migrants arrived, the lawyer stood outside the small Episcopal church where they were staying and addressed reporters. To the people who had found themselves “plane-wrecked” in her community, Self offered solidarity. “We’ve got you. We’ve got your back,” she said.
A migrant landed on Martha's Vineyard. A resident jumped in to help.
At the time, Self was reeling from the loss of her brother, who had died of complications from covid the month before. Without realizing it, she was echoing some of the same phrases that she had used to reassure him while he was in the hospital.
Self, who has appeared as a legal analyst on Fox News, had prior experience in the media glare. But she had never received such specific threats to her safety that she felt compelled to report them to the police. Her partner, Billy Gazaille, began accompanying her everywhere and carrying a gun in their truck.
After Self and Salazar’s initial conversation, the sheriff followed up with an email copying his senior staff. Self and other lawyers working with the migrants — Susan Church, Julio Henríquez, Emily Leung and Adriana Lafaille — arranged for the adults to be interviewed via video by members of the sheriff’s organized crime unit. The interviews took place in three rooms over two days at Joint Base Cape Cod, where the migrants were housed after leaving Martha’s Vineyard.
Salazar is investigating whether the people who carried out the plan in Texas broke a law that makes it illegal to restrict someone’s movements without their consent whether by force or deception, an offense called “unlawful restraint.”
More at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/17/marthas-vineyard-migrants-desantis/
