‘Krazy Kari’ Lake’s Role Models Are Criminals

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Kari Lake and Blake Masters were the two Arizona headliners along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at Turning Point Action’s Unite and Win Rally back in August. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rallies support around Lake, Masters in Arizona:

Someone said ‘Kari, you’re going to be the DeSantis of the West,” Lake said. “Honestly, other than calling me Trump in a dress, that’s the greatest compliment you could pay me.

Lake in particular complimented DeSantis, discussing at length how he has B.D.E (Big Dick Energy) by how he handled the pandemic and media.

But in an op-ed at the Arizona Mirror, James Garcia reveals, Lake labels Ducey a human trafficker during Hispanic chamber event (excerpt):

Surprisingly, however, when asked about Gov. Doug Ducey’s so-called compassionate practice of busing migrants north from the Arizona-Mexico border and dumping them in Democrat-run cities, Lake said she would end the practice as governor. She even went so far as to say the practice by Ducey, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis equalled “human trafficking.” Good for Lake. Human trafficking, like separating children at the border, is wrong.

But despite labeling DeSantis a criminal — trafficking immigrants is, after all, a federal offense — Lake said she’d be more than happy to welcome National Guard troops from Florida to “stop people from coming across” the border. DeSantis, she said, has already agreed to join a multi-state effort to seal the border.

Previously, Florida Politics reported, Kari Lake ‘not a fan’ of Ron DeSantis sending plane of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard:

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is speaking out about Gov. Ron DeSantis sending two planes of undocumented immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday.

Lake, appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight on the Fox News Channel, said she disagreed with the Florida Governor’s stunt.

“I’m not a fan of it, Tucker,” Lake said. “I mean, we’re just taking people here illegally who shouldn’t be here, moving them further inland.”

It wasn’t all criticism from Lake, however.

“I actually get a kick out of it,” Lake told Carlson. “Watching these liberal Mayors just throw their hands up and say ‘We can’t handle it.’ Because it’s life every day for us in these border states.”

[L]ake said on Fox News Wednesday that if elected, she would send National Guard troops to the border but did not reference DeSantis’ offer.

All performance politics and spectacle, all of the time for Fox Nation and the MAGA/QAnon cult.

Last week, the Bexar County sheriff in San Antonio, Texas certified that the migrants originally taken to Martha’s Vineyard are legally victims of a crime who are assisting a law enforcement investigation. ‘We’re All Dispersed.’ Migrants Sent To Martha’s Vineyard Have Now Settled Throughout Eastern Mass. – The Boston Globe (excerpt):

The sheriff’s office said the case is being investigated “as possible unlawful restraint.” The alleged criminal act stems from an unusual operation in which a Florida woman reportedly lured the migrants onto the flights with false promises about the destination and the benefits the migrants would receive there.

The woman — sources say the sheriff has identified her as Perla Huerta, a former Army counterintelligence agent — was apparently working on behalf of the administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has claimed credit for the operation.

The recruitment of the migrants occurred in San Antonio and the sheriff’s office said that only people who were in the area at the time of the alleged deception are considered suspects.

The certifications should enable the migrants to apply for “U visas” with the federal government. The visas are a special designation for victims of certain crimes who provide useful information to investigators, according to a spokesperson for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

For Rachel Self [a lawyer on the island who has assisted the migrants since their arrival], the certifications serve a dual purpose. First, they will facilitate the sheriff’s ongoing investigation. Second, they should protect the migrants from deportation — especially if they remain in Massachusetts.

Self said that now that she has the certifications from the Texas sheriff in hand, the migrants can individually apply for U visas with the help of their pro bono immigration attorneys. The process promises to be long, she cautioned.

“It’s not a quick fix,” she said, “and [the outcome] is not guaranteed.”

But the U visa process does provide a plausible path for the migrants to obtain work authorization and, eventually, green cards, Espinoza-Madrigal said.

The application process also serves as a kind of shield against deportation, especially if the migrants remain within the jurisdiction of the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.

That’s because of a legal precedent set just last year. In a lawsuit brought by a man with a pending U visa application, the court of appeals found that the government “abused its discretion” when it moved to reopen proceedings to deport the man. Self said the decision would help protect any Martha’s Vineyard migrants who apply for U visas and reside within the boundaries of the first circuit.

“The perpetrators of these crimes,” she said, referring to the suspects in the sheriff’s investigation, “have ironically ensured that these people will be able to remain in the United States while their cases are pending.” (No one has been charged with a crime in connection with the Martha’s Vineyard flights.)

So a șelf-own by Ron DeSantis for his performance politics stunt for Fox Nation and the MAGA/QAnon cult. His criminality ensures that the migrants he used as pawns for his stunt get to stay.

Espinoza-Madrigal said that even if migrants leave the jurisdiction of the first circuit, a pending U visa application would still confer protection. “It would be extraordinarily unusual for immigration officials to effectuate the removal of somebody that law enforcement has identified as a victim of a crime and a person who is collaborating on a criminal investigation,” he said.

So Kari Lake’s role model, Ron DeSantis, is the subject of a criminal investigation in Texas, for  “unlawful restraint” [and possiby kidnapping by deceit (inveigle)],  and by Kari Lake’s own assessment “human trafficking.” Arizona doesn’t need a “DeSantis of the West,” and certainly not a “Trump in a dress,” an insurrectionist Coup Plotter. Criminals should not be her role models.

By the way, that campaign ad Lake runs of Arizona National Guard troops supposedly marching to the border: Kari Lake Busted For Using Russia Troops In ‘Secure Our Border’ Ad:

A campaign ad for Kari Lake, the hard-right Donald Trump-backed GOP nominee for governor in Arizona, features stock video of Russian soldiers marching in a victory parade.

The footage appears as the narrator of the spot promises Lake, a former local news anchor, will “deploy the National Guard to secure our border,” Heartland Signal reported on Thursday. The original footage is still available to buy from the stock image website Shutterstock.

“If Kari Lake can’t identify a uniformed member of the Arizona National Guard from a Russian soldier, she has no business leading our brave men and women as governor,” Lake’s Democratic rival, Katie Hobbs, told the media outlet.

“Krazy Kari” Lake is all performance politics and spectacle, all of the time for Fox Nation and the MAGA/QAnon cult.