Aoki Center Event on The Migrant Crisis

Please join us for a discussion led by Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the Executive Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) in Boston, the organization representing the Venezuelan migrants sent by Ron DeSantis to Martha's Vineyard.

Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the State of Florida, and their accomplices, challenging the fraudulent and discriminatory scheme to transport nearly 50 vulnerable immigrants, including women and children, from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard without shelter or resources in place. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a class of affected immigrants, including the immigrants stranded in Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of migrant-led organizations supporting immigrants across the United States.
 
The class members were targeted and induced to board airplanes and cross state lines under false pretenses. Accomplices of state officials, including the Florida Governor, targeted immigrants recently released from shelters and made false promises of work opportunities, schooling for the children, and immigration assistance in order to induce travel. Until immediately before landing, the affected immigrants did not know they were going to Martha’s Vineyard, a geographically isolated island off the coast of Massachusetts. Once the planes landed in Martha’s Vineyard those who had coerced individuals to travel under these false pretenses disappeared, leaving the affected immigrants to learn that the offers of assistance had all been a ruse to exploit them for political purposes.

“No human being should be used as a political pawn in the nation’s highly polarized debate over immigration,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, Executive Director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, an organization providing free legal assistance to the migrants. LCR has been on the ground since the migrants arrived helping with coordination pro bono legal assistance and mobilization of community support.  LCR assisted in escorting the migrants off of the island to the base in Cape Cod. 

Join us in a discussion with Mr. Espinoza-Madrigal regarding this litigation.

Please contact Nina Bell at nbell@ucdavis.edu with any questions. REGISTER for livestream.