XPost: alt.california, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
XPost: talk.politics.guns

On 21 Nov 2021, Bob Duncan <bob7duncan@gmail.com> posted some news:sneg1s$ebb$2@news.dns-netz.com:

Mighty Wannabe wrote

Go the fuck home to Mexico and shut up then. Get the fuck out of
here.

They saw themselves in the video that Florida officials offered up as
proof of their consent to travel to California, but they said it's not
what it seemed.

They were happy, yes. That part was true.

They had finally made it to America after traveling thousands of miles
over the span of three months from their home in Venezuela. They walked
until their feet bled and caught a bus or a train when they could.
Sometimes they went days without eating and collapsed with exhaustion.

The young husband and wife had held each other in the jungle, sleeping
without even a blanket. They ran out of the rice and tuna they had packed
and picked fruit from trees to survive. They cleaned windshields in
exchange for donations or food when they traveled through cities.

"There were many moments of desperation and frustration and fear," the 34- year-old husband said in Spanish in an interview with The Times on Friday
in Sacramento. "But with God, we felt at peace. It was not easy."

Four migrants recently flown to Sacramento by the state of Florida spoke
to The Times and asked not to be identified, worried that it could impact
their upcoming court hearings or put their families who remain in their
home countries in danger.

They are among 36 people who arrived on two chartered flights this month,
a move that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken responsibility
for as he runs for president and lambastes Democratic immigration
policies.

After journeying from Central and South America to escape violence and
poverty at home, they have unknowingly landed at the center of a political firestorm in the United States.

They say they were duped by Florida officials and that, while they are
grateful to be in America, their plans have been disrupted, with
immigration hearings now spread across the country and job opportunities stalled.

Members of the group — which also include former residents of Colombia and Guatemala — said they came to California because they were promised that
they would be given a home, higher paying jobs and attorneys to help them
more quickly obtain permits to work legally.

When the married couple crossed the border to enter Texas, it meant that
it had all been worth it: that they could send money home to their
children, whom they had left behind with a grandparent in Venezuela, with
hopes of eventually reuniting.

The kids, ages 9, 10 and 13, don't have shoes, and they don't eat well,
their father said.

So the smiles on their faces in the viral video touted by DeSantis were
real. But that's because they were promised so much more, they said.

The contractors hired by Florida state officials, who they met in Texas
earlier this month, promised better-paying jobs elsewhere, they said. The husband and wife said they were pressured to sign paperwork in order to
make the trip but didn't understand that doing so was intended to waive
the state of Florida from fulfilling the promises they made verbally.

"We didn't get what they told us that we were going to get. They said that
if you take the flight, you can get shelter, you're going to get work,
you're going to get food," the man said. "And all we received was
abandonment."

He is tall and strong. But as he sat in the sanctuary of the Parkside
Community Church, he nervously rubbed his legs whenever the topic turned
to his children. Tears rolled down this face.

He was wearing denim shorts printed with stars and stripes and an American
flag sweatshirt to match — clothes he had recently chosen at a local
thrift store with the help of organizers who have cared for them since
they were dropped off on the doorstop of a local diocese two weeks ago.

"I didn't know that all of us were being deceived," he said.

His 28-year-old wife wears a ponytail and grips a cup of coffee as she
explains that she is thankful for the kindness the nonprofit and faith community in Sacramento has showed them, but that she wouldn't have come
if she had known the truth.

During the few days they spent in El Paso upon first arriving to the
United States, they slept at a shelter and got to work immediately. He
earned $80 a day working construction, while his wife earned $50 cleaning
up the work sites afterward.

They only came to Sacramento because they thought they were going to earn
more money, which would allow them to help their children faster, she
said. Now, they have no jobs and must start all over again.

"I would've rather stayed there to make money," she said.

While Florida state officials have rebutted criticisms that the migrants
were tricked in the name of a political stunt, some who spoke to media for
the first time on Friday say they were blatantly lied to.

Florida officials said in a statement last week that the flights were part
of a "voluntary relocation" program and provided video of people appearing
to sign waivers agreeing to go on the trip. California Atty. Gen. Rob
Bonta is investigating the matter and Gov. Gavin Newsom has floated
kidnapping charges against DeSantis.

DeSantis administration officials did not return a request for comment on Friday when asked about the migrants' claims.

One migrant showed The Times the paperwork that he was given by the
Florida Division of Emergency Management, which references a "voluntary transportation program" and agrees to not bring any lawsuits against the
state of Florida in exchange for free transportation. That man did not
sign the waiver, which also asked signatories to agree that their decision
to take the trip was not in exchange for "representations or promises"
made regarding employment, benefits, healthcare and other assistance.

But that's exactly what the migrants who spoke to The Times said happened.

A 27-year-old man from Guatemala said he was separated from his girlfriend
and his 4-year-old step son by immigration officials once they arrived in America.

He is eager to work and earn income to be able to move them to Sacramento
from New York, where they are now living in a shelter.

The journey for the young family was difficult. The shelters were often
full in Mexico, and they had to sleep on the streets, he said. They put up
to six sets of pajamas on their son when it was too cold outside.

He worked as a security guard in Guatemala but the money was never enough
to make ends meet and violence was everywhere.

"If anybody leaves their country, it is because of need, not because they
want to," he said. "I don't really ask for anything else from life, just
to be able to have work and to have my family with me."

He has seen the news. He knows that his trip here has reignited a national debate about immigration reform and exacerbated a nasty battle between
DeSantis and Newsom. He knows that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott this week in a similar move sent migrants to Los Angeles.

He said he has tried to ignore it and focus on his mission to reunite his family but he couldn't take it anymore. He is angry that he was told he
would have a lawyer that would help him and his girlfriend build a life together. Instead, he said, he was left in a parking lot with nothing.

He said he was rushed to sign a waiver before he could fully read it, and
never saw a copy in Spanish.

"They're saying a version that really makes no sense," he said of Florida officials. "What I really want you to get across is that they promised us something and they still haven't fulfilled that."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/all-we-received-was-abandonment- migrants-sent-to-sacramento-by-desantis-speak-out/ar- AA1cG0Lb?ocid=msedgdhp&cvid=9492f3f2541d4bda820caf943ed4ecef&ei=53

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