The media stunt is successful, remains to be seen whether it will pay off politically. By sending thousands of migrants by bus and plane to Washington, New York, or to a posh island in the northeast of the country, the Republicans are trying to refocus the political battle on immigration, a few weeks before legislative elections.
The White House spokeswoman on Thursday denounced a “shameful” and “cruel” maneuver. “It’s a cold and premeditated political maneuver,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, accusing these tenors of the American right of using migrants as “pawns”.
Thursday morning, two buses carrying migrants arrived near the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington. A place obviously chosen on purpose, the Democratic official being in charge of the explosive file of immigration at the White House. They had been sent by the very conservative Greg Abbott, campaigning for his re-election in this state at the forefront of the wave of illegal immigration from Central American countries.
“Vice President Harris claims our border is ‘safe’ and denies there is a crisis. We are sending migrants to his backyard to urge the Biden administration to do its job and secure the border,” the Texas governor tweeted. He claims to have already sent 10,000 migrants since April to Washington, New York and more recently Chicago.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis joins the movement
For Republicans, it is a way of denouncing the policies of President Joe Biden, whom they accuse of having turned the border with Mexico into a sieve, and of trying to put immigration at the center of the campaign. midterm elections in November.
On Wednesday, the influential Republican governor of Florida Ron DeSantis joined this movement, claiming to send two migrant planes to the island of Martha’s Vineyard, a mythical vacation spot for the wealthy who hosted the Kennedys, the Clintons or the Obamas. A group of about 50 Venezuelan migrants, including children, arrived on this island on the Atlantic coast of New England, a region rich in elites often the target of conservatives, on Wednesday.
Although the governor of Florida arranged the transport, the planes were arriving from Texas and not his state, according to local newspaper MV Times and a local politician. “Migrants are being landed at Martha’s Vineyard by charter flights from Texas. Many don’t know where they are. They say they were told they would be given housing and jobs,” local Democrat elected official Dylan Fernandes tweeted late Wednesday.
Ron DeSantis, also a candidate for re-election, is seen as a potential rival for former President Donald Trump in the race for the White House in 2024. “Residents of Martha’s Vineyard should be delighted”, quipped Wednesday on Twitter Christina Pushaw, from the Florida Governor’s communications team. “Illegal migrants will make the city more diverse, which is a strength. Nope ? »
” Cruel “
Immigration policy, an explosive subject in the United States, is even more so a few weeks before the high-stakes mid-term elections. Immigration is a favorite theme for Republicans, and moving migrants in spectacular operations offers them an opportunity to put the debate back at the center of a news dominated by the affair of the documents found at Donald Trump, and with an electorate Democrat galvanized by Supreme Court reversal on abortion.
Transporting these migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Washington “was a necessity”, commented Andy Biggs, Republican representative of Arizona, a state whose governor also sends buses of migrants. “Democratic leaders must come down from their ivory tower and face reality. »
Conversely, the Democratic mayor of New York Eric Adams promised Thursday to focus on welcoming and not rejecting migrants. “Exploiting vulnerable people as part of a political coup is outrageous and cruel,” said Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts, where the island of Martha’s Vineyard is located.
Charlie Crist, Democratic opponent of Ron DeSantis in the race for the seat of governor in Florida, denounced a “political calculation” aimed at “serving fresh meat to his electoral base”. The candidate denounced the price of this operation, affirming that Florida was spending “12 million dollars to send innocent immigrant children away from our State”.