{"id":55738,"date":"2022-10-19T22:07:25","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T02:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=55738"},"modified":"2022-10-19T22:07:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-20T02:07:28","slug":"more-desantis-shady-dealings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2022\/10\/more-desantis-shady-dealings\/","title":{"rendered":"More DeSantis’ Shady Dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

How do we know that Ron DeSantis\u2019 cruel political stunt treating children and adults as human props<\/a> was shady to the nth degree? Well, text messages reported<\/a> by the Miami Herald reveal that the notorious recruiter who aided the Florida governor\u2019s scheme left money at dead drops for the unwitting recruiters she used to help lure as many vulnerable people as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emmanuel, himself a Venezuelan migrant, was brought in by the now-identified Puerla Huerta<\/a>. She paid him $700 cash to help recruit other migrants, leaving his final payment in an envelope behind the dumpster of a San Antonio BBQ joint. You know, just some normal state business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dWhile the media has focused on Huerta, a Miami Herald investigation found DeSantis\u2019 San Antonio operation was far bigger and better organized than previously known, with more than half a dozen recruiters and support staff on the ground, and some operational logistics handled from Florida,\u201d the report said. The stunt was financed through interest earnings associated with federal pandemic funding, a move now under probe by the Treasury Department watchdog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Named among these figures is DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff, James Uthmeier, who oversaw scheming in San Antonio. \u201dFlorida\u2019s public safety czar, Larry Keefe, served as point person for the program in Texas, documents show.\u201d The Miami Herald report said that the latter actually, once upon a time, represented Vertol Systems Company Inc., the contractor and GOP megadonor that got paid big bucks to shuttle human beings for DeSantis.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Texas, Keefe messaged Uthmeier that \u201cconditions\u201d were \u201cquite favorable,\u201d Miami Herald said. It\u2019s unclear if this was in the literal sense, as in Oh, its a nice sunny day today, or instead, Our scheming is going according to plan, evil laugh. \u201cVery good,\u201d Uthmeier replied, according to Miami Herald. \u201cYou have my full support. Call anytime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Uthmeier and Vertol Systems Company Inc. are specifically named in a recent lawsuit launched by the Florida Center for Government Accountability watchdog<\/a> that\u2019s asking a court to force DeSantis to release public records related to the stunt. Text messages were \u201cobtained by the Herald and other organizations through public records requests,\u201d though it’s unclear if Florida Center for Government Accountability was among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does continue to be clear is that Emmanuel and dozens of others were lied to, misled, and outright tricked by the orchestrators of this political scheme. Emmanuel even said he had Huerta\u2019s name saved in his phone as \u201cPerla Hermosa,\u201d or, \u201cbeautiful Perla.\u201d The migrant \u201csaid he believed he was part of a benevolent mission run by a kind and compassionate woman,\u201d one who was offering desperate people all sorts of lifelines, the report said. \u201cHuerta told him she was a military veteran. He trusted her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know who is good, and who is bad,\u201d Emmanuel now says, according to the report. \u201cIt\u2019s like something is eating me from the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mysterious \u201cPerla\u201d was later revealed to be former combat medic and counterintelligence agent Perla Huerta<\/a>. She recently left the military after two decades under circumstances not publicly known. Like so many scammers throughout history, she\u2019s seemingly vanished without a trace, deleting social media profiles and even putting up her Tampa house for sale, the report said. We also see that at least one top official within DeSantis\u2019 office was very much involved in carrying out this scheme. Meanwhile, the governor\u2019s office has actively stalled<\/a> on releasing public records into the scheme. If it feels shady, it probably is shady, folks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is there some hope of justice for the victims of this scam? We desperately hope. Last week a Texas sheriff signed off on certain documentation<\/a> that could ultimately help victims gain permanent relief here. A U-visa is available to victims of crime who are helpful to law enforcement in their investigations. But because of an annual cap and massive backlog<\/a>, relief could be many years away. Emmanuel himself has been cooperating with Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar\u2019s probe, though its unclear if he\u2019s seeking a humanitarian visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dLegitimate operations don’t hide bags of money behind BBQ restaurants,\u201d tweeted<\/a> Florida House Democrats. \u201cThis is an embarrassment for Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do we know that Ron DeSantis\u2019 cruel political stunt treating children and adults as human props was shady to the nth degree? Well, text messages reported by the Miami Herald reveal that the notorious recruiter… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":55742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1838],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55743,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55738\/revisions\/55743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}