If Martha’s Vineyard Tried To Prove It Cares About Immigrants, It Failed Miserably

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by MARK HEMINGWAY

When Republican governors send 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, it’s a humanitarian crisis. When 51 migrants who were encouraged to cross the border by Democrats die in the back of a truck, well, that’s a statistic.
 
In September of 2014, I found myself in a town hall meeting in Lexington, Nebraska — population 10,000. It’s a meat-packing town about three hours west of Omaha, and not what one would call a wealthy town. I was there on a campaign stop with Sen. Ben Sasse, and the people of Lexington were very concerned with one issue in particular: what to do about the 11 Central American kids the federal government had dropped off unannounced in Lexington the month prior, just before the start of school. There had been a rapid influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the border that summer, and the Obama administration just relocated many of them around the country in towns such as Lexington.
 
It bears repeating that these were children that needed taking care of. Whatever social services you think are needed to take care of regular migrants, this was a much bigger and more expensive issue for the town. Self-sufficiency wasn’t just a matter of finding them work — these kids had to be clothed, fed, educated, and generally looked after for years.
 
The townspeople were alternately irate about being put into this situation and genuinely concerned for the kids’ welfare, given the town’s limited resources. After listening to the townspeople plead for help, we got on the campaign bus and drove to the next stop. For all I know, those migrant kids are still in Lexington, and the community of Lexington is hardly unique. Hundreds, if not thousands, of American towns have had to rise to meet challenges as a result of the federal refugee resettlement.
 
Perhaps you can start to see why I was unimpressed with the residents of Martha’s Vineyard for harboring 50 migrants for two days before sending in the military to herd them off. And yet, because the DeSantis stunt — and there are valid objections to flinging migrants hither and yon to make a point — exposed a great deal of hypocrisy among Democrats, there is a campaign afoot to portray Martha’s Vineyard as a model of compassion for the way they treated these immigrants.
 
In my wildest dreams, I could not have made up CNN’s headline that was this unintentionally parodic and unflattering: “‘They enriched us.’ Migrants’ 44-hour visit leaves indelible mark on Martha’s Vineyard.”
 
Or take this gauzy Washington Post profile of a Bolivian immigrant-turned-Martha’s Vineyard real estate agent — please. (In case you’re wondering, the average home price on the island is over $1 million, so the commissions are decent.) The woman took a day or so off to help the migrants and gather supplies for them. Which is, I confess, admirable behavior. But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the ongoing volunteer work being done in border towns such as El Paso, Del Rio, and Yuma, which likely see 50 or more new migrants every hour. And yet, those volunteers get little flattering national press coverage, let alone something as tone deaf as this:

As the migrants said goodbye to the local volunteers who had provided them with food and shelter, many in the group cried. Watching them leave, Lima cried too. 
 
“You just hope that they land where they’re supposed to,” she said.

Indeed, where are they “supposed” to land? It can’t possibly be on Martha’s Vineyard because, well, excuses. The island’s permanent population of 30,000 regularly accommodates 150,000 visitors a year, but it’s after Labor Day, so it’s off-season, and they can’t accommodate a fraction of the average attendance of one of the many weddings on the island. Or something. And one of the wealthiest enclaves in America supposedly doesn’t have the resources to provide the social services necessary to help.
 
In fact, Martha’s Vineyard is so broke it started a GoFundMe to help with the 44-hour crisis — yes, the town actually issued a statement calling it a “humanitarian crisis.” The GoFundMe, which has since closed, was organized by Sarah Goulet on behalf of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation. Sarah Goulet is a New York communications executive whose clientele seems to consist largely of art galleries, and her husband is a journalist at GQ magazine. She’s apparently made six campaign donations to Kamala Harris, our deeply unpopular vice president and “border czar” who recently assured us that our southern border is secure. As for the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, it’s already sitting on a slush fund of $16 million. According to the foundation, they are using that money for efforts “addressing the effects of climate change on the Island,” “eradicating racism,” removing “the barriers that prevent equal rights for all,” and “ultimately eliminating inequality and injustice.” (Once again, I must attest to the fact that these details are real and not parody.)
 
How many community organizations do you think there are in Lexington, Nebraska, that have $16 million to help solve civic problems? A single charity on Martha’s Vineyard, and one heavily committed to social justice causes, could have easily supported 50 migrants on the island indefinitely until they were self-sufficient and fully incorporated into the community.
 
Well, there’s just one problem left to address. There’s a housing crisis on the island. Fortunately, former President Barack Obama has 29 acres on the island. Surely he could donate a plot of land and tap his own personal fortune — the deal for the Obamas’ memoirs alone was worth $65 million — to construct a shelter for these people seeking a better life here in America, right? After all, it’s the least he can do — Obama’s personally responsible for many of the immigration policies that created this “humanitarian crisis,” and he’s directly responsible for burdening other towns such as Lexington, which didn’t seem to have the option of sending their migrants elsewhere.
 
By now, the point here should be clear — there are no easy answers to the problems of mass immigration. But however distasteful you think it is for Republican governors to use actual migrants to prove a point, the fact is that Martha’s Vineyard voters and Massachusetts Democrats are all too happy to vote for immigration policies that are cynical political ploys they think will benefit Democrats electorally, even as they tell themselves what they are doing is compassionate.

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 The GoFundMe, which has since closed, was organized by Sarah Goulet on behalf of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation.

It would be interesting to know how many of the uber-wealthy Martha’s Vineyard residents contributed and how much. My first guess… ZIP.

As for the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation, it’s already sitting on a slush fund of $16 million. According to the foundation, they are using that money for efforts “addressing the effects of climate change on the Island,” “eradicating racism,” removing “the barriers that prevent equal rights for all,” and “ultimately eliminating inequality and injustice.”

Steve Bannon, take note.

Martha’s Vineyard is a sanctuary city. It is a sanctuary for rich liberals to be shielded from such trashy scum as truck drivers, plumbers, garbage men, auto mechanics or wetbacks… unless their services are needed.

Martha’s Vineyard must be going down hill since Obama moved in a mean the whole area ruined by Americas former Dictator and so close to the beach dispite this Global Warming/Climate Change stuff

09/20/22 – Ron DeSantis gets BRUTAL legal news over Martha’s Vineyard stunt

As the commentator points out, the cost to taxpayers of flying these people from Texas to Florida to Martha’s Vineyard works out to $12,500 per migrant—$615,000 for the air transport alone, for a partisan political stunt. That’s in addition to using vulnerable human beings who were fleeing persecution like a damn stage prop.

Last edited 1 year ago by Greg

Where do these freaks get such info?
Chartering a larger private aircraft may cost you between $8,600 and $13,000 per billable hour.
You are just pissed because Biden hit 2 million lured to the dangerous border this year alone and now the entire nation knows that the VP and Biden are total liars and failures with the border situation.
Our pals in the south are emptying out their prisons, just like Castro, and sending them to our country. (source U.S. DHS)
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Uh huh. Have you ever heard of commercial airlines? That would have cost around $300 per seat. Not as effective as a stunt, though. If they wanted to score points, they needed a lot of confused people dumped at a precise location with cameras ready to roll.

As rubes go, you folks have got to be the most gullible that God ever put on the earth.

“Follow the money” has always been a way of getting to the bottom of things.

Last edited 1 year ago by Greg

Illegal immigrants, with no ID, cannot fly commercial. That’s why idiot Biden charters 767’s to fly them all over the country. When the only ID they have is their arrest warrant, most carriers don’t buy that, scooter.

What are they doing in the country anyway?

Illegal immigrants, with no ID, cannot fly commercial

While that is true, there have actually been exceptions:

How TSA Explains Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Fly With You
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The Transportation Security Administration has an “established process” for identifying illegal immigrants who board domestic flights to a new home in America, a spokeswoman told The Daily Signal, although the Biden administration formally refers to this population as “undocumented.”

The TSA was responding to a Daily Signal report Friday about such commercial flights carrying illegal aliens—specifically one that departed McAllen International Airport in Texas the day before—and the security waiver necessary for them to board without showing required identification. 

Amid the new surge of illegal immigrants at the southern border, the Biden administration has facilitated putting some of them on flights to cross the United States to new destinations at taxpayers’ expense. 

Although they are in the United States without government-recognized documentation after unlawfully crossing the border, the federal government allows groups of illegal immigrants to go through TSA security checkpoints in airports. 

>>> EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Immigrants Fly American, Courtesy of Biden Border Policy

In an email Saturday to The Daily Signal, spokeswoman Patricia Mancha wrote:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has an established process to verify the identity of individuals who have received a Notice to Appear from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and are ticketed for travel on a commercial airline.

TSA will continue to coordinate with CBP and use resources available to the agency to confirm the identity of every traveler to ensure that transportation security is not compromised. 

Mancha said the Transportation Security Administration identifies illegal immigrants using “accepted forms of immigration-issued documents.” 

These include the I-94 form for international travelers visiting the United States legally. 

The TSA spokeswoman also cited the I-862 form, which is a Department of Homeland notice to appear in immigration court for illegal immigrants who have been released from detention. 

Historically, many illegal immigrants who are released into the country don’t face a hearing in immigration court for months or years

Mancha also referred to Form I-385, a so-called Alien Booking Record used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This document could include information obtained from the arresting or delivering officer such as name, sex, age, date of birth, birthplace, country of citizenship, and medical issues. 

However, many illegal immigrants are released into the U.S. soon after being apprehended at the border, said Mark Morgan, Acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the Trump administration after serving a short stint running Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

“There is no way to 100% guarantee the identity of everyone coming across our borders illegally, especially when law enforcement organization’s facilities are dangerously overcrowded and are being pressured to release them as fast as possible,”  Morgan said of the illegal immigrants caught at the border. “The room for fraud is wide.”

Morgan was on an American Airlines flight Thursday out of the McAllen airport when he saw 14 illegal immigrant families or groups board the plane. 

An “established process” for non-illegal aliens exists for the TSA, on a case-by-case basis, to allow individuals to fly even without identification, but they must undergo a lengthy individualized screening process before eventually being allowed to board a flight to their final destination. This would include those whose identification was lost, forgotten, or stolen. 

“And it’s one thing to do a one-off for an American citizen where there are numerous ways we can verify someone’s identity through a network of U.S. controlled and operated systems vs. a systematic ‘waiver’ for an entire class of individuals—where no such equivalent verification systems exist and with no limit or end in sight,” Morgan told The Daily Signal.

Morgan currently is a visiting fellow in national security at The Heritage Foundation, the parent organization of The Daily Signal.

Driven by the new border crisis, Customs and Border Protection facilities have released some families who unlawfully entered the country to nongovernmental organizations and coordinated efforts to transport them, Morgan said. 

These NGOs receive federal, state, and private funding, so taxpayers indirectly pay for the flights.

The flights occurred during previous administrations, including the Trump administration, when detention facilities for illegal aliens were packed. But this process has accelerated with the current surge at the border, which critics have attributed to President Joe Biden’s rhetoric. 

The Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, which is part of that agency, did not respond to numerous inquiries from The Daily Signal before it published the initial report Friday. The White House also did not respond to requests for comment. 

Among unanswered questions is how many such flights carrying how many illegal immigrants have flown out of McAllen and other border city airports since Biden took office Jan. 20, where the illegal immigrants went, and how much these flights have cost taxpayers. Nor is it clear how many, if any, of the illegal immigrants are tested for COVID-19.

The Biden administration reversed most of the border security policies of the Trump administration through executive order—halting deportations and stopping construction of the border wall, among other measures.

Illegal immigrants, interviewed in recent news accounts, said they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border anticipating more accommodating policies from the new president. Fewer than 20% of illegal immigrants that encounter Customs and Border Protection agents have a credible claim that they fear conditions in their home country, according to government data.

But, in order to avoid the negative optics, the biden regime has been chartering non-commercial flights sending illegal aliens to parts unknown throughout the US in the early hours of the day.

Last edited 1 year ago by TrumpWon

Bullshit

What are the illegal immigrants doing in the country in the first place? Who lured them here and let them in, making the cartels billions of dollars in the process?

Idiot Biden flies the illegal immigrants from Texas to Florida. Is that a stunt? Is that trafficking? Is that a crime?

Your bullshit is so weak even the flies laugh at it.

Much, much more money has been spent to date by Biden in his 70 plus human trafficking flights…in the night…to spread the immigrants to states without their approval. Add to that the Billions in taxpayer dollars paid because Biden won’t close the border like Trump did…(Trump drastically reduced illegal immigration).

Now you see the genius of what DeSantis did, highlighting how illegal and corrupt the Biden regime truly is.