A top constitutional scholar said Democrats accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of kidnapping or human trafficking for shipping illegal immigrants to a self-proclaimed sanctuary city should look at their own side first.
After all, if relocating illegals is a crime, President Joe Biden may be “the biggest coyote ever,” George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley said Monday.
Turley appeared on Fox News on Monday to discuss allegations by, among others, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Hillary Clinton, and Charlie Crist, DeSantis’ opponent in the November gubernatorial election.
They and other liberals claim that DeSantis last week somehow broke the law by rerouting about 50 illegals from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy, overwhelmingly liberal enclave in Massachusetts that has declared itself a sanctuary city, meaning it would not cooperate with federal authorities in detaining or deporting illegal immigrants.
“I don’t see a case,” Turley told Fox News. “Unless they can establish some systemic coercion or fraud, there’s really not a federal crime here. They can find individual cases that might be somehow actionable, but what the state has said is that they have express consent for these flights.”
In the news: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Lambasts Critics On Migrant Flights, Biden Policy
Turley asserted that “rational reasons” exist why newly arrived illegals may want to leave border towns, such as for better employment opportunities or better levels of social service support.
“What they are arguing here is that this is an illegal transport of migrants,” Turley said. “If that was the case, then Joe Biden would be the biggest coyote ever. Right?”
“I mean he’s transferring thousands of people across the country. Also, public interest organizations transfer migrants.”
And these groups do this with the migrants’ consent, as also happened in Florida.
“Human trafficking is usually transferring or transporting someone for the purposes of exploiting them for sex or labor. That’s not thankfully being alleged here with Governor DeSantis,” Turley continued.
“Transportation of individuals occurs all the time in the federal government. Governor Newsom has himself, when he was mayor [of San Francisco], I believe, transferred homeless people to other states.”
Turley is right.
The left-wing “fact-checkers” at PolitiFact reported as much in 2018, when Newsom ran for governor.
Newsom claimed that year that as mayor he got 12,000 people off San Fran’s streets.
“The city placed about 7,000 in permanent housing programs, while the remainder left the streets with a bus ticket through Homeward Bound, a program that’s been criticized by some homeless advocacy groups as simply moving the problem to another city,” PolitiFact reported.
Said Turley, “Was he kidnapping them? Was that human trafficking? The answer is no.”
“They were vulnerable, but they’re allowed to make the consensual choice. Once the migrants are released by the federal government into the country, they have the right to go anywhere they want, and therefore, groups like public interest groups or states can assist them with their consent,” Turley continued.
In the news: Texas Sheriff Opens Probe Into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Migrant Relocation
“What’s really concerning for me is that this is not literally human trafficking. That is literally nonsense, and we do have some obligation to tell the public what the law is,” he concluded.
“This was a political — some people can call it a political stunt — but the federal code does not make political irony a crime. You’re going to have to deal with it as a political matter, not as a criminal matter,” said Turley.
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