Fifty migrants, mostly Venezuelans, arrived on the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Wednesday, following being flown in from Texas and Florida, the local press reported Thursday.
The migrants, who also included some Colombians, arrived on two planes that landed unexpectedly at the Martha’s Vineyard airport, forcing emergency managers on this island in the northeastern United States to mobilize to provide them with health care, lodging and food, reported The Vineyard Gazette.
Democratic state senator Julian Cyr indicated that one of the planes with immigrants had departed from San Antonio, Texas, in “a cruel trick that manipulates families seeking a better life,” reported the local newspaper of this exclusive island of the Atlantic coast where celebrities and millionaires often spend their vacations.
Cyr was referring to the threats by the authorities of some Republican states in the south of the country to send emigrants and refugees to states governed by Democrats, in protest at what they consider to be an immigration policy of the government of President Joe Biden that is permissive and condescending towards immigration. irregular and refugees.
“No one should capitalize on the difficult circumstances these families are in and distort this so that they can say, ‘I cheated on you,'” Cyr added.
In a video sent to the Fox network, the Republican governor of Florida, Ron DeSantistook credit for sending the migrants to the island, the Martha’s Vineyard Times reported.
In 2021, DeSantis promised to spend $8 million to send immigrants out of state and listed Martha’s Vineyard as a possible destination.
The migrants were seen by the island’s Community Services to be relocated to a high school and Saint Andrew’s Church and Parsonage, where they were given bottles of water and some food.
“We are immigrants, we came here because of the situation in our country, because of the economy, because of work, because of many things. I came here walking. We went through ten different countries until we got to Texas. There, a refugee association put us on a plane and told us that there would be work and housing here,” a Venezuelan refugee who identified herself as Eliase told the Vineyard Gazette.
Democratic state congressman Dylan Fernandes, who went to the parish of Saint Andrew to help in the humanitarian emergency created by the arrival of immigrants, described them as “pawns in a political game.”
“It is deeply disgusting, it is a cruel ruse to manipulate families seeking a better life (…) Some were told lies, that they would receive housing and work as soon as they arrived,” said Fernandes, while Jonathan Searle, the police chief of Oak Bluffs, a district located on the island, assured that it is “a humanitarian problem.”
Following the arrival of these two planes, authorities expressed fear that more migrants might be on the way.