Boston - The federal lawsuit filed on behalf of the people who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard during their political asylum process have won their first court battle. The attorneys representing the migrants asked for their case to be anonymous because of the death threats the Venezuelans were receiving.
Mirian Albert is one of the attorneys working with the people who unexpectedly showed up in Martha’s Vineyard. She says the migrants are mostly still at Joint Base Cape Cod.
“I think they are in good spirit,” said Albert, “but at the same time I think there is also so much that they are still processing. They have been through so much.”
Attorneys representing several civil rights groups say their clients were tricked into getting on chartered planes and never told where they were going. Florida’s Governor later took credit for trying to make a point about immigration problems in the country. The first motion in the case asked for the migrant’s names to be confidential which was granted. Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal is the Executive Director for Lawyers for Civil Rights. “We have requested the courts protection so that our clients identify can be held confidential to protect them and their loved ones here in Venezuela as the matter unfolds,” said Espinoza-Madrigal.
A criminal investigation is also independently happening out of Texas, where the people boarded the planes. Boston 25 Legal Analyst Peter Elikann explains the criminal side all centers around consent.
“To consent you have to be given the facts and then agree to them and if you are giving some phony, fabricated, made up story and say I’ll agree to that, then meanwhile they say fooled you but you didn’t consent to that,” said Elikann.
The Florida governor’s office told us they obtained signed consent forms from the people before the flights and showed the releases which are in English. “When you take people who can only speak Spanish and there are things written in English on it then they are not knowingly consenting,” said Elikann.
The next big step in the case would be defendants being served with the case. One of those defendants is the Florida Governor. The timeline for when that could happen is still unknown.
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