Ron DeSantis falsely said migrants deported from Martha’s Vineyard within 24 hours

As he moves toward a potential bid for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has highlighted his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, including flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last year.

In an April 6 speech at Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan, DeSantis said Florida had banned "sanctuary cities" and caught thousands of Haitians and Cubans who had arrived illegally by sea. 

DeSantis also said Democrats and "legacy media" care about people who are in the U.S. illegally only when they show up at "beautiful Martha’s Vineyard."

On Sept. 14, DeSantis flew around 50 immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in what was intended as an attack on the Biden administration’s immigration record. It mirrored actions at the time by other Republican governors in Texas and Arizona. The migrants flown to the island off the southeastern coast of Massachusetts, mostly Venezuelans, had previously been in Texas. 

Two days after arriving on Martha’s Vineyard, the migrants were taken to nearby Joint Base Cape Cod, a military base with dormitory-style housing, for longer-term shelter.

"Then they got really upset about that….," DeSantis said in his speech, regarding the migrants’ arrival at Martha’s Vineyard. "They called out the National Guard and deported them within 24 hours. So these are people, these leftist elites, they want to impose their vision on society but they don't want to have to suffer the consequences of that vision, they want you to suffer the consequences."

DeSantis was parroting viral statements similar to ones we debunked in September.

We asked DeSantis for his evidence to support the claim and his spokesperson, Jeremy Redfern, replied via email, "Massachusetts called in the National Guard to ‘deport’ the migrants from Martha’s Vineyard." In his reply, Redfern cited a Sept. 16 New York Post article about the migrants, but the article referred to a "relocation program," not deportation.

DeSantis is wrong on two counts. First, the migrants were not deported, which occurs when people are removed from the United States and sent back to their country of origin or, in some cases, to a third country. Second, deportations are generally carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal immigration agencies — not the National Guard. 

The Massachusetts National Guard provided some assistance to the migrants on Cape Cod, including lodging and dining facilities. The agency did not transport the migrants from Martha’s Vineyard, a spokesperson said. 

DeSantis and the Florida Republican-led Legislature are moving toward passing additional immigration restrictions by the time the session ends in early May.

In February, DeSantis called for mandating the use of E-Verify to vet the eligibility of workers, invalidating undocumented immigrants’ out-of-state licenses and requiring hospitals to collect data on the patients’ immigration status. 

Martha’s Vineyard is home to about 17,000 yearly residents, while about 200,000 people spend the summer there. About 63% of its homes are owned by people who live there seasonally, including former President Barack Obama.

The wealthy island is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis and not equipped to handle the sudden arrival of dozens of immigrants, said Lisa Belcastro, the island’s homeless shelter coordinator, in September. There is no year-round homeless shelter on the island.

On Cape Cod, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency led efforts to provide the immigrants with food, shelter and services, and coordinated with state and local agencies and nonprofit agencies. The migrants were provided access to health care, case management for housing and educational support for children and regular trips into the community for medical and other needs. 

The Cape Cod shelter closed Oct. 7.

Monika Langarica, a staff attorney at the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, told us in September that "movement between states or regions within the United States is not a deportation." 

The Vineyard Gazette reported in March that of the 49 migrants, four of them ended up back on the island.

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"Over the winter they have quietly settled into island life, taking English classes at night and working odd jobs as they begin to navigate the labyrinthine American immigration system, a process that can take years," the Gazette wrote.

Rachel Self, an immigration lawyer representing five of the migrants, told us that she is not aware of any of the migrants being deported. She said that the migrants have applied for asylum and U visas, which are set aside for victims of certain crimes. Self said that most of the migrants have stayed in Massachusetts.

The Lawyers for Civil Rights, an organization headquartered in Boston that represents immigrants and people of color, filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit in September against DeSantis and other Florida officials, challenging the transportation of the migrants to the island. 

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the group, told PolitiFact that "none of the clients have been deported." The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts also told PolitiFact that it is unaware of any deportations.

DeSantis said when migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard, "They called out the National Guard and deported them within 24 hours."

The migrants were relocated to a Cape Cod military base and were not removed from the United States. They remain in the U.S. today.

Deportations are carried out by federal immigration authorities, not the National Guard.

We rate this statement False.

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