As of: 09/15/2022 9:45 p.m
Martha’s Vineyard is far from Florida. Its Republican governor, however, had unannounced migrants flown to the holiday island popular with prominent Democrats. The White House called the action “cruel”.
In the dispute over immigration policy in the US, Republican governors are expanding their method of bringing migrants to democratic parts of the country. Several dozen migrants surprisingly arrived by plane on the posh holiday island of Martha’s Vineyard in the state of Massachusetts. The Republican governor of Florida in the south of the country, Ron DeSantis, had people brought there, as his office announced in a statement.
It said states like Massachusetts had “invited” people to come to the United States by incentivizing illegal migration and supporting Biden’s “open borders policy.” Although Massachusetts has a Republican governor, it is otherwise considered a democratic state, which is also represented in the Senate by two Democrats.
Martha’s Vineyard is known as a popular vacation spot for prominent Democrats. The Obamas, for example, have owned a luxury beach villa on the island for a few years. Other celebrities and the wealthy also vacation on the island.
“Evil and Inhuman”
The White House strongly condemned the actions of the Republican governors. Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre called her actions “disgraceful,” “reckless,” and “just plain wrong.” It is a cold, political action. Families and children are being used as a means of political pressure: “It’s inhuman,” she said. “It’s cruel.”
The community helped the migrants immediately, said a local democratic politician.
Image: via REUTERS
Local Democratic MP Dylan Fernandes wrote on Twitter that the community immediately arranged beds, meals and medical care for the migrants. He sharply criticized the Republicans’ actions: “Republicans who call themselves Christians have been planning for some time to use human lives – men, women and children – as political pawns. This is evil and inhuman.” Many of the migrants do not know where they are. Apparently they were told that they would get apartments and jobs.
DeSantis is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate and currently the biggest internal party competitor for ex-President Donald Trump, who has been fueling speculation for weeks that he could run for a second term in 2024. DeSantis is in the midst of campaigning for another term as governor.
Sent to Harris’ residence from Texas
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is also on the campaign trail, had two buses full of migrants brought near US Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington to attract public attention. Their task is to combat the causes of flight and thus curb illegal migration. Harris denies the crisis and claims the US border is safe, Abbott wrote on Twitter: “We are sending migrants into their backyard to ask the Biden administration to do their job and secure the border.”
In the spring, Abbott and his Republican counterpart from Arizona, Doug Ducey, began busing migrants from the border areas to the Democratic-governed cities of Washington, New York and Chicago in protest at the migration policy of US President Joe Biden’s administration.
More than 9,000 migrants have reportedly arrived in Washington alone. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser recently declared a state of emergency in response to the arriving migrant buses to get federal support.
In the US congressional election on November 8, halfway through Biden’s term, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and about a third of the seats in the Senate will be up for grabs. There are also gubernatorial elections in many states.
The issue of migration has been one of the most bitter points of contention between Democrats and Republicans for years. Trump had taken a particularly tough course in migration policy during his tenure and tried in a variety of ways to make immigration more difficult. The construction of a wall on the border with Mexico was the most prominent example. In addition, there were countless tightening measures to keep asylum seekers – but also other immigrants – away. Biden took a fundamentally different course when he took office.