Judge Dismisses DeSantis From Lawsuit Over Illegal Immigrant Flights to Martha’s Vineyard

A federal judge on Monday dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on chartered flights in 2022.

In a 77-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs said that there were “insufficient facts” presented in the lawsuit to exercise jurisdiction over Mr. DeSantis and other staff members.

“On the present record, the court cannot ascertain what actions were undertaken by whom and therefore cannot determine which, if any, of the individual defendants transacted business or caused injury here, leaving it no choice but to find that, at least on this record, personal jurisdiction has not been established,” the judge stated.

However, Judge Burroughs stated that the illegal immigrants could still proceed with their suit against Vertol, the Florida-based company that was paid $1.5 million to transport illegal immigrants to the island.

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

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