In their coverage of a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on behalf of migrants who were flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, right-wing media have attacked both the plaintiffs’ lawyers and Democrats, claiming they're exploitative and hypocritical.

The lawsuit, filed by the Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights and Latino advocacy group Alianza Americas, argues that DeSantis fraudulently coerced 50 migrants onto two charter flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard under “false promises and misrepresentations” of jobs in Boston or Washington, D.C., thus violating their constitutional rights. Migrants say they were “surprised” to have landed on Martha’s Vineyard, where local authorities and community organizers were “scrambling” to gather resources, such as food, shelter, and translating services. Attorneys now demand DeSantis be held accountable for “inducing immigrants to travel across state lines by fraud and misinterpretation” and “for the harm suffered by the migrants.” 

DeSantis’ office responded to the lawsuit by attacking the intentions of the migrant’s lawyers and deflecting from their involvement in this political stunt by pivoting to the Biden administration’s supposedly “reckless border policies.”

Right-wing media followed DeSantis’ lead by arguing that the lawsuit is baseless; claiming the Lawyers for Civil Rights group and Democrats are exploiting the migrants for political theater; and highlighting that George Soros’ Open Society Foundation has previously funded the nonprofit involved in the class action suit. 

Right-wing media claim: The migrants’ lawsuit against DeSantis is baseless and hypocritical

• Fox host Jesse Watters: “The lawsuit is hilarious,” Watters said, after mocking Lawyers for Civil Rights executive director Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal’s accent, because these migrants “are from a Venezuelan slum” and “it wasn’t until they were well-fed and put in an air-conditioned flight to Martha’s Vineyard that they really started to suffer.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/21/22]
• One America News Network correspondent Neil McCabe: “You got to wonder, you know, is this anything more than headline-grabbing?” [One America News Network, Weekly Briefing, 9/25/22]
• University of California, Berkeley professor John Yoo: Because “both governors say they asked for the consent of the migrants, asked for their permission and then sent them on their way to Boston or to New York,” it is “hard to take” the lawsuit “seriously.”  [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 9/20/22] 
• Fox News co-anchor John Roberts: After reading from a statement issued by DeSantis’ office that insinuated the suit was baseless because the migrants were “homeless” and “hungry” prior to their nonconsensual flight to Massachusetts, Roberts asked, “If Martha's Vineyard sees its population swell from 17,000 a year to 200,000 during the summer season, and can't find room for 50 migrants, what are these towns along the border doing?” [Fox News, America Reports, 9/21/22]
• Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley: “The filing is a Jackson Pollock of legal claims with twelve claims thrown against Florida from false imprisonment to intentional infliction of emotional distress to misuse of the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund.” [JonathanTurley.org, 9/21/22]

Right-wing media claim: Migrants are being exploited by their lawyers and Democrats for political gain

• Watters: “The illegals who DeSantis flew to the Vineyard are suing him. Let that sink in. Illegal immigrants are suing a sitting U.S. governor,” but it was not their idea since “they are new to the country” and “they don't know how easy it is to sue a leading Republican presidential candidate.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 9/21/22]
• Fox News guest Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL): Before the lawsuit against DeSantis was filed, Salazar said potential legal action “is a major embarrassment” because “my people are being used as pawns.” [Fox News, The Story, 9/19/22]
• Former legislative counsel with anti-immigrant hate group FAIR John Zadrozny: Democrats are upset about DeSantis’ political stunt because “it disrupts their ability to engage in voter fraud.” Liberals are also allegedly “upset” because it disrupts “the trafficker model,” which is “the only thing that’s doing well under Joe Biden, so they need all the luck they can get from an economic perspective.”  [One America News Network, 9/19/22] 
• Fox News host Sean Hannity: “I’m kind of laughing to myself because what this means is Democratic lawyers, you know, exploit – this is the exploitation of migrants.” [Premiere Radio Network, The Sean Hannity Show, 9/21/22]
• Fox News co-host Emily Compagno: “The reality is that there's been some activist groups that have teamed up with other activist legal groups and said, ‘Hey, sign here on the dotted line.’ Ironically taking, probably, advantage of them that way.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/21/22]

Right-wing media claim: The lawyers defending the migrants are funded by George Soros and are profiting off this lawsuit

• Fox News host Dan Bongino: The left is hypocritical because they “complained all the time about, you know, big money and they always insist it’s the Republicans, but yet when it’s Soros groups and other groups that may be linked to this spending to get these immigrants who are here illegally to sue a great American governor, all of a sudden, like, it’s A-OK, let’s do it.” [Fox News, Unfiltered with Dan Bongino, 9/25/22]   
• Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig: Quoted in a Daily Caller piece connecting Soros’ Open Society Foundation to the nonprofit involved in the class action lawsuit, Ludwig said, “Soros’ vision of a global ‘open society’ hinges on wrenching open every country’s borders, whether the citizens of those countries want to or not.” [The Daily Caller, 9/22/22]
• Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft: Hoft said that Soros has previously funded a group involved in the migrants lawsuit. He also quoted a Fox News article which insinuates that the lawyers involved are Democratic operatives: “The law firm filing the suit, Lawyers for Civil Rights, received $50,000 from the Borealis Philanthropy in 2019, tax forms show. Borealis is a left-wing donor-advised fund that acts as an intermediary steering Democratic money to organizations.” [The Gateway Pundit, 9/21/22]
• Fox News host Brian Kilmeade: The nonprofit and lawyers involved in this lawsuit will receive “$75,000 a person they are going to sue on behalf of,” and “This firm got a million dollars – $1.4 million from the George Soros group to go ahead and sue on their behalf because they have been tortured at Martha's Vineyard.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/22/22]