The headlines were dire: a Texas sheriff announced that he's investigating Ron DeSantis for some sort of illegal conduct (fraud? abuse? kidnapping?) connected with the 50 Venezuelan illegal aliens DeSantis sent to Martha's Vineyard.  DeSantis instantly snapped back, not just denying that he'd done anything wrong, but highlighting the horrible things illegal aliens experience in that sheriff's own county.  That's how all Republican politicians should be operating.

After allowing Biden to spend 18 months using his state as a dumping ground for illegal aliens, Texas governor Greg Abbott was finally inspired to do something that conservative pundits have been suggesting for a while: he sent illegal aliens to Democrat-run sanctuary cities that are nowhere near the border and, therefore, have never been obligated to live up to their promises.  Suddenly, New York City, Chicago, and D.C. were facing the reality of illegal aliens, and, to the delight of true Americans everywhere, the Democrat mayors were not happy.

Arizona's Doug Ducey quickly picked up on the idea.  But it was Florida's Ron DeSantis who took the whole thing to the next level (maybe inspired by a monologue Tucker Carlson did in July).  He offered fifty Venezuelan illegal aliens the opportunity to go to Martha's Vineyard, one of the richest and most Democrat communities in America.  They leaped at the chance.

Image: Bexar County sheriff Javier Salazar (edited).  YouTube screen grab.

What ensued next was hilarious.  M.V. denizens were put into a blind panic when 50 well behaved Venezuelans arrived.  Despite hundreds, or even thousands, of vacant units now that the summer vacation season is ended, they insisted that there was no room at the inn, and within two days, the National Guard arrived to take those disturbing illegal aliens away.

More laughably still, the next day, M.V.'s residents congratulated themselves for having been so "enriched" by two days spent with the people they couldn't wait to get rid of.  The millionaires on the island also boasted about the $40,000 that an NGO worth $14 million raised for the cause, none of which went to the illegal aliens.

For DeSantis, and for Republicans generally, the whole spectacle was a massive P.R. victory.  Dems have been contemplating a variety of ways to attack him. 

In Texas, one sheriff got out ahead of the "Attack DeSantis" pack.  A Democrat Texas sheriff, Bexar County's Javier Salazar, announced that he was launching a criminal investigation tied to DeSantis's actions.  According to Salazar:

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced at a news conference Monday that his office is investigating whether the migrants were the victims of a crime, saying they were "lured under false pretenses." Many migrants said they agreed to fly from San Antonio to the Massachusetts island after being promised jobs. But there was no work waiting.

Ruh-roh.  Is it all over for our fearless Florida leader?

Well, maybe not so fast.  For one thing, in the same news conference, Salazar conceded that he's going on a fishing expedition:

"I believe people need to be held accountable for it to the extent possible," Salazar said. "At this point, I'm not able to definitively say here's the statute that they broke, either federal, state or local, but what I can tell you is it's wrong. Just from a human rights perspective, what was done to these folks is wrong."

For another thing, Salazar is going after the wrong politician.  As the New York Times' Jamelle Bouie asserted in an opinion piece comparing DeSantis to Trump, unlike the soft and fuzzy Trump (yes, that's what Bouie says so that he can attack DeSantis), DeSantis is "meaner" than Trump.  What Bouie fails to understand is that, to beleaguered Americans watching Biden's America-destroying policies, DeSantis's attack dog mentality is a good thing.

It was no surprise, therefore, that DeSantis went right for the jugular.  Rather than giving the usual Republican response of denying the charges and hurling the weak insult that Salazar is "grandstanding," DeSantis attacked...hard:

NEW: The Bexar County, TX Sheriff’s Office has opened an investigation into Florida’s flight of migrants from TX to Martha’s Vineyard, claiming they were “lured”.

Gov. DeSantis’ office is firing back, referencing the 53 migrants who died in a trailer in Bexar County in June. 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/iJJBOjZxyD

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) September 19, 2022

If you can't open the tweet, the DeSantis message says:

Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and "left to fend for themselves." Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected. Unless the MA national guard has abandoned these individuals, they have been provided accommodations, sustenance, clothing and more options to succeed following their unfair enticement into the United States, unlike the 53 immigrants who died in a truck found abandoned in Bexar County this June. (Emphasis mine.)

Boom!  And that's how you do it.