Republican governors are intensifying their practice of sending unannounced migrants to Democratic strongholds, including a wealthy island in Massachusetts and the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, to provoke the leaders of so-called “sanctuary” cities and highlight their opposition to the policies of the administration of President Joe Biden.
The governors of Texas and Arizona have bused thousands of migrants to New York, Chicago and Washington, DC in recent months, but the most recent actions – which included two Wednesday flights to Martha’s Vineyard Island paid for from Florida – reached a new level of political theater that critics have called inhumane.
Upon arrival at Martha’s Vineyard, where former President Barack Obama has a home, mostly Venezuelan migrants received food, shelter, medical care and information on where to find work.
The resort island south of Boston, whose year-round residents include many working-class people, has apparently absorbed the dozen newcomers without much trouble.
Elizabeth Folcarelli, director of the non-profit organization Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, was about to finish her work when she saw 48 Venezuelans with luggage and backpacks approach her office. They carried red folders with brochures from the Folcarelli organization.
“They were told they would have a job and a home,” said Folcarelli, who described the high demand for shelter as a “great challenge.”
On Thursday, the migrants played football and socialized in small groups outside their temporary shelter, meeting visiting lawyers for free advice and other service providers.
Supporters made donations and volunteers signed up to provide all the help they could get. There were no signs of protest.
Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said some of the migrants transported by bus from Texas to Washington, DC on Thursday were “duped”, a claim the AP has not confirmed and that the Texas and Arizona officials denied.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the flights to Martha’s Vineyard are part of an initiative to “transport illegal immigrants to shrine destinations.” The Florida legislature has set aside $ 12 million to transport “unauthorized aliens” out of state.
DeSantis’ office did not answer questions about where the migrants boarded the flights and how they were persuaded to make the trip.
Julian Cyr, a Massachusetts state senator, told the Vineyard Gazette that a flight departed from San Antonio, Texas, raising doubts that migrants ever set foot in Florida. Flight tracking data shows that a flight originated in San Antonio, made a stopover in Crestview, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina, before landing at Martha’s Vineyard.
The two buses with migrants that departed from Texas and arrived in front of Harris’ residence at the United States Naval Observatory on Thursday morning transferred more than 100 people from Colombia, Cuba, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela.
“The Biden-Harris administration continues to ignore and deny the historic crisis on our southern border, which has endangered and overwhelmed Texas communities for nearly two years,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has dedicated thousands of millions of taxpayer dollars to make border security a distinctive issue.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who has had public clashes with DeSantis and Abbott over their conservative policies, asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate whether transporting migrants across state lines as “political props” constituted. a violation of the law.
“Transporting families, including children, across state lines under false pretenses is morally reprehensible, but it could also be illegal,” Newsom wrote in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. The governor also posted it on his Twitter account.
Without citing DeSantis or Abbot by name, Newsom hinted that the federal government could present kidnapping and “conspiracy for civil rights” charges because migrants were targeted because of their national origin.
After asylum-seeking migrants have crossed the US-Mexico border, they spend time in a customs and border protection facility near the border until they are usually released in the US awaiting their follow-up. cases. Republicans say Biden’s policies encourage migrants to hide inside the country. Democrats argue that the Trump-era policy of forcing migrants to wait in Mexico for their asylum cases to be resolved was inhumane.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that Republican governors who sent the migrants to Massachusetts and Washington did not give federal authorities notice.
“These are children, families who have been promised a house, a job, loaded on a bus and taken to a place unknown to them,” said Jean-Pierre, who said that the behavior of the governors is “a cruel behavior and premeditated political stratagem ».
Abbott has transported 7,900 migrants to Washington since April, followed by 2,200 in New York and 300 in Chicago. Since May, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey has sent more than 1,800 migrants to Washington. Runners must sign documents stating that they voluntarily accept free rides.
DeSantis appears to take strategy to a different level by using planes and choosing Martha’s Vineyard, whose port cities of around 15,000 people are far less prepared than New York or Washington for large numbers of people to arrive.
Texas and Florida angered authorities in destination cities by not providing passenger lists, estimated arrival times, and other information that would make preparations for them easier. Instead, Arizona coordinated with officials from other cities.
Biden faces the same problems as Trump: a dysfunctional asylum system and economic and social conditions that are leading people in many countries to decide to leave them.
US authorities arrested migrants from Mexico about 2 million times from October to July, a nearly 50% increase over the same period a year earlier. Many are released in the United States to prosecute their immigration cases due to the federal authorities’ difficulties in deporting them under a regulation known as Title 42, which dates back to the pandemic and denies them the opportunity to seek asylum.
Some Republicans celebrated the new shipments of migrants from border states to sanctuary cities.
“Massachusetts, welcome to be a southern border state,” tweeted Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for DeSantis.
Stephen Miller, a leading architect of Trump’s migration control policies, said bringing “a few million” migrants to Martha’s Vineyard should transform the island of 15,000 into “a modern Eden.”
Charlie Crist, the Democratic candidate for the governor of Florida, said DeSantis treats migrants in an inhumane way. “I am amazed at what he is willing to do just for political gain,” he said.
Talia Inlender, deputy director of UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, said flights to Martha’s Vineyard appear to violate Florida’s law that they are restricted to “unauthorized foreigners.”
“These people are not without authorization,” he said. “There is no way that they fly without anyone noticing”:
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Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston; Seung Min Kim in Washington; Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Gisela Salomone in Miami; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Paul Weber in Austin, Texas and Adam Beam in Sacramento, California contributed to this report.
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