The Democratic Senate Majority Whip, Dick Durbin of Illinois, has blasted the Republican governors of Texas and Florida for using migrants as political pawns.
Meet the Press host Chuck Todd of NBC News asked Mr Durbin on Sunday if he thinks the federal government should step in and prevent conservative governors from sending migrants to Democratic areas.
“Well, I can tell you this. I've been to the Salvation Army rescue centre in Chicago and I've met with people who came off the buses. I sat down with one of the families and they told me the story. It is pathetic that these governors are taking advantage of these helpless people making promises to them to get on the bus and life is just gonna be fine,” Mr Durbin told NBC News.
“And off they go into places far removed from where they're supposed to be appearing under the requirements of our law in a matter of weeks and months. So it’s jeopardising their stay in the United States when each governor makes his decision,” he added.
“Why is it when the Republicans want to enforce their immigration theories, it's always the kids that end up being the victims?” he asked. “We saw it with kids in cages. We saw it with [the] forcible removal of children from their parents, some who've never been reunited with their families. And now once again, it's the kids and families that are put on these buses and transported for political purposes across the United States.”
Lawyers for some of the migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard from Texas by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have called for a criminal investigation to be opened.
The lawyers have said that the migrants were “induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretences,” according to The Guardian.
The Boston group Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) represent 30 of the 48 migrants flown to the Massachusetts island on Wednesday.
“Individuals, working in concert with state officials, including the Florida governor, made numerous false promises [to the migrants] – including of work opportunities, schooling for their children, and immigration assistance – in order to induce them to travel,” they said.
“We strongly believe that criminal laws were broken by the perpetrators of this stunt,” the group said in a letter to US attorney Rachael Rollins and Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey.
“This cowardly political stunt has placed our clients in peril. Upon arrival, numerous individuals had to be rushed to the hospital, in need of medical care. Some now have immigration hearings as early as Monday thousands of miles away,” they said in a statement.
