Officials From Martha’s Vineyard Hold Emergency Meeting Following Arrival of 50 Illegal Immigrants, Migrants Will be Moved “Off Island”

According to The Boston Globe, officials in Martha’s Vineyard are holding an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis of 43 illegal alien arrivals, including one four-year-old child.  The group arrived via a chartered flight dispatched by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

According to state representative Dylan Fernandes, “when you look at the limited housing options on Martha’s Vineyard, as I’m sure many of the folks here are aware, it’s likely we’re going to need an off island location.”  As noted by the Globe …”a Zoom meeting has been scheduled for emergency management officials from the island along with people from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to discuss the next step for the immigrants.”

(Boston Globe) […] Fernandes also strongly condemned DeSantis and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas for sending the migrants to the Vineyard.

“To use women and children as political pawns is cowardice. Governor DeSantis is a coward,” Fernandes said. “Their communication on this, Governor DeSantis’s on this, was to jump on Fox News and beat his chest about how tough he is on immigration. It’s inhumane. It’s depraved.”

DeSantis defended the move in remarks to reporters on Thursday during a briefing at Northwest Florida State College.  

“Every community in America should be sharing in the burdens. It shouldn’t all fall on a handful of red states,” he said. Other states “don’t like it as much when you get just a small, small, small amount compared to what these folks have dealt with in Texas and in other states.”

Florida’s message, DeSantis said, is that it’s not “a sanctuary state.”

“Now what would be the best is for Biden to do his damn job and secure the border,” he said.

Susan Church, a prominent immigration lawyer based in Cambridge, said a team of attorneys in Massachusetts is working with advocacy groups including the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice to interview the migrants and determine whether they’d be eligible for victims of crimes visas, based on reports they were coaxed into getting on a plane under the pretext that their paperwork would be expedited.

“They were duped in to getting on to the plane,” said Church, former chair of the New England Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association. “This is akin to kidnapping.”  (read more)

While the apoplexy and pearl-clutching from the condescending and sanctimonious democrats is political fuel for ridicule, at the end of the day these transports of illegal economic migrants, illegal aliens, is not a solution.

Desperate times do call for desperate measures, and we desperately need to see the southern border secured, immediately.  If the transports lead to backlash from Democrat officials and politicians, and that hypocrisy leads to facing the reality of the border crisis created by Joe Biden, then perhaps something positive can come from this approach.

I find myself torn between seeing this as a political gimmick yet understanding that some shift in the national narrative is needed. If this approach delivers that shift, if more people wake up to the border crisis, then something positive could be gained.  However, at the end of the day these unlawful migrants are people.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis answers questions earlier today: