He hasn’t admitted it yet, but for the sake of argument let’s say the Republican governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis is behind the recent crossings of South American migrants from Texas to the steps of a Catholic church in Sacramento. What exactly would he like to achieve?

There was some tense logic last year, I suppose, in a similar stunt, with DeSantis organizing migrant flights

F

Rome’s southern border with Martha’s Vineyard.

You remember that, of course: DeSantis

‘

accomplices arrested several dozen Venezuelan asylum seekers ranging in age from 2 to 68 in San Antonio in September

,

promised them jobs and financial aid, then flew them to Massachusetts in chartered planes at taxpayers’ expense. The migrants said they were told they were on their way to New York or Boston.

In the Republican political imagination, Martha’s Vineyard is an elitist liberal stronghold whose residents don’t really understand the border crisis.

No one really cared about this from the national media perspective until 50 showed up at Martha’s Vineyard, DeSantis said at the time. (Translation:

Nobody paid attention to me

.)

But in California, home to the busiest border crossing in the world, where the agricultural and service economies would collapse without the labor of immigrant workers here illegal or not, what on earth would someone like Cruella DeSantis try to prove?

After all, he is not running against California’s beloved Democratic government. Gavin Newsom.

He’s up against former President Trump and a host of other Republican hopefuls, all of whom are trailing Trump in the polls. But Trump’s stranglehold on the GOP means DeSantis can’t pick a fight

the former man for fear of alienating the Republican base, not to mention the fear of unleashing Trump’s toxic brand of rhetorical destruction.

DeSantis probably hopes Chris Christie will be Trump’s pain sponge now that the combative former governor of New Jersey enters the race.

(Trump’s favorite insult to Florida Governor Ron DeSanctimonious is crass, but appropriate.)

Either way, DeSantis probably hopes Chris Christie will be Trump’s pain sponge now that the belligerent former governor of New Jersey is entering the race.

Now that the Republican presidential election is in full swing,

attacking Newsom with what is almost becoming a tired guess counts as simple misplaced aggression. He represents conservative and independent voters in a way that will not provoke Trump. In fact, using migrants as pawns is right up Trump’s alley: cowardly, calculating, and cruel.

And possibly illegal.

Ron DeSantis, you pathetic little man, Newsom tweeted that on Monday. This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charge?

To be fair, Newsom fished for his

own share of the national attention by picking on DeSantis. In the past year, Newsom has flown to Florida to criticize the governor for imposing his anti-LGBTQ+ values ​​on Florida schools, challenge DeSantis to a debate, and run a TV ad inviting Floridians to join to join us in California.

In DeSanti’s seemingly final bid for the national spotlight, on Friday, 16 migrants from Colombia and Venezuela were flown from Texas to Sacramento via New Mexico. Twenty more arrived on Monday. No arrangements had been made for their care; according to California Atty, they were dropped off at the doorstep of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento with documents that appeared to be from the Florida state government. General Rob Bonta.

DeSantis isn’t the only red state governor using people to tweak Democrats. The day after the migrants landed on Martha’s Vineyard last summer, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent two busloads of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris Washington’s door.

Fortunately, resistance to this transparent political conspiracy is gaining momentum.

In September, a federal class action lawsuit was filed against DeSantis and other Florida officials by a civil rights law firm on behalf of the migrants flown to Marthas Vineyard. It alleges that the migrants’ constitutional rights were violated when they were tricked into boarding planes and abandoned once they landed.

Monday the Texas Tribune

the Bexar County Sheriffs Office in Texas reported that it had filed criminal charges against unnamed suspects in connection with the Marthas Vineyard

caper

.

The charges include several counts of unlawful restraint, both misdemeanor and felony, the Tribune said. It remains to be seen whether the local prosecutor will prosecute.

And Bonta has launched an investigation into the conditions under which the most recently transported group of asylum seekers entered

California.

We are also evaluating possible criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged the transportation of these vulnerable immigrants, Bonta said in a statement. State sanctioned kidnapping is not a choice of government policy, it is immoral and disgusting.

What is especially pathetic about red state leaders trying to make headlines by sending migrants to blue states and cities is that local and state officials have no control over border policies.

That responsibility rests squarely with Congress, which has vacillated for decades. Last month, the House passed an immigration bill that critics say would end asylum

in the U.S

whole

and restart construction of Trump’s failed border wall. President Biden has said he will veto the bill, which most likely will not pass the Senate.

In any case, both sides have expressed hope that the legislation, controversial as it is, could be the start of serious cooperation between the two sides in this area. I’m looking for a random port during a storm, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters last month.

So do the hundreds of thousands of poor, weary and huddled masses who come to these shores longing to breathe free. Allowing cynics like DeSantis to exploit migrants to make political points compromises what we’ve always believed is best about us.

@robinkabcarian