Ron DeSantis scores huge legal win as he is dismissed from lawsuit over migrant flights to Martha's Vineyards - but asylum seekers can still sue charter flight company

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis scored a legal victory as the conservative firebrand was dismissed from a lawsuit by migrants he flew to Martha's Vineyard. 

The class action suit, filed in the District of Massachusetts, alleged the governor 'designed and executed a premeditated, fraudulent, and illegal scheme centered on exploiting [the migrants] for the sole purpose of advancing their own personal, financial and political interests.' 

The U.S. District Court of Massachusetts said in its ruling that it does not have jurisdiction over DeSantis in this case 

While DeSantis was dropped, the migrants can still sue the charter flight company that transported them to the island off the Massachusetts coast, according to a ruling Monday by a federal judge in Boston.

In 2022, DeSantis arranged for 50 migrants to be flown out to the wealthy island off Massachusetts, in a move that set off a firestorm in the political war over immigration.

The 50 Venezuelans were sent to Martha´s Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, and had been promised work and housing opportunities.

Under Monday's ruling, the migrants can proceed with their suit against Florida-based Vertol Systems Co., which agreed to fly them to the island for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

An email to the company seeking comment after the afternoon release of the ruling was not immediately returned.

The court found the facts of the case 'taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx immigrants.'

The DeSantis administration noted the judges' order dismissed the state defendants.

'As we've always stated, the flights were conducted lawfully and authorized by the Florida Legislature,' Julia Friedland, the deputy press secretary for DeSantis, said in a statement. 

'We look forward to Florida's next illegal immigrant relocation flight, and we are glad to bring national attention to the crisis at the southern border.' 

The court also said that 'unlike ICE agents legitimately enforcing the country´s immigration laws ... the Court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate.'

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, called the 77-page ruling a major victory in the Martha´s Vineyard case.

He said in a statement that the ruling sends the message that private companies can be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through what it characterized as illegal and fraudulent schemes.

The migrants are requesting compensatory, emotional distress, and punitive damages, their attorney costs to be covered and for DeSantis to be stopped from 'inducing immigrants to travel across state lines by fraud and misrepresentation.' 

Massachusetts called in its National Guard to handle the few dozen migrants and the migrants were shuttled to a military base in Cape Cod after Gov. Charlie Baker said that the billionaire's enclave was 'not equipped to provide sustainable accommodation' to the migrants. 

DeSantis ripped a page out of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's playbook with the political move. Abbott had bussed thousands of migrants to liberal sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago.