Jonathan Chait: “Last night, DeSantis pulled off the stunt. He lured a couple dozen immigrants onto a pair of planes and flew it to Martha’s Vineyard, where he deposited them onto an unprepared island. He then handed the story to Fox News, a network that has coordinated closely with him and predictably gloated over his latest triumph.”
“The conceit of Abbott’s stunt is that his state is so overwhelmed with illegal immigrants he needs to send them to the place that is supposedly causing their arrival. DeSantis, not having a land border with Mexico, had no such pretext. Instead, he had to find immigrants in Texas and, essentially, kidnap them for his own use.”
“To acquire the bait for his stunt, DeSantis apparently deployed staff into Texas to mislead the targets.”
