Tacoma got dragged into DeSantis’ immigration stunt. Even from here, his cruelty is clear


Lynne Sladky/AP

Matt Driscoll
Sat, September 17, 2022

Sometimes one quote says it all. Sometimes one description — one sequence of perfectly chosen words — gets to the heart of the matter the way 10,000 words can’t.

Rachel Self, a Boston immigration attorney who momentarily found herself at the center of one of the most bizarrely cruel acts of political callousness in recent memory, delivered just such a moment this week.

“They were told there was a surprise present for them, and that there would be jobs and housing awaiting for them when they arrived. This was obviously a sadistic lie,” Self told a throng of reporters on Thursday night, standing in front of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Martha’s Vineyard.

The church and the small, wealthy enclave — known as a summer home for the liberal elite — had become the epicenter of the biggest story in the country. Roughly 24 hours earlier, nearly 50 migrants, most of them Venezuelan, were flown to the Massachusetts island under the promise of better care while they await legal immigration proceedings. With no other options once they arrived, St. Andrews Episcopal took them in.

It was a stunt designed to ratchet up the conflict between conservative states like Texas and Florida and the Biden Administration over national immigration policy, and one that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — a sneering bully with no shame and presidential aspirations — smugly took credit for.

“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,” DeSantis communications director Taryn M. Fenske explained in a statement.

Sadistic? By every connotation of the word — right down to the alleged details, which according to Self just happen to include Tacoma, roughly 3,000 miles away.

As Bianca Padró Ocasio of the Miami Herald reported, Self continued, describing in detail the deception and dirty tricks that she said the migrants were subjected to as part of DeSantis’ blatant theater — all of it seemingly produced with frothing FOX News viewers in mind. The migrants were loaded onto two planes and flown to a tiny island that wasn’t expecting them, and, according to Self, were also given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, a tactic that could jeopardize the migrants’ chances of winning their immigration cases and staying in the country.

Self told reporters that at least one person was given a mailing address of a Tacoma homeless shelter, saying that some migrants provided with a fake address were instructed to quickly check in with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office nearest to it.

“There is no other reason to list as someone’s mailing address a homeless shelter in Tacoma, Washington when they ship him to Massachusetts. It is sickeningly cruel throwing obstacles in the way of people fleeing violence and oppression, some of whom walked through 10 countries in the hopes of finding safety,” Self said.

The absurdity and inhumanity came through loud and clear in Self’s voice. From where the attorney was standing, Tacoma, Washington surely felt like a world away. That seems like the point.

But here’s the thing: Even without all the details Self provided on Thursday — and even if, by some stretch of the imagination, there’s slightly more nuance to the story — the confirmed facts of what DeSantis has readily copped to are damning enough, no matter where you stand on national immigration policy.

The dictionary describes an act that’s sadistic as one that takes “pleasure in the infliction of pain, punishment, or humiliation on others,” and there’s no better way to put into words what DeSantis has done.

The truth is unmistakable, even here in Tacoma — so far away.