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Washington (AFP) – The group of 50 migrants sent to the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard in the northeastern United States as part of a political battle over immigration will be temporarily received at a nearby military base, the Massachusetts governor announced Friday.
The migrants, mostly Venezuelans and among whom there are children, arrived on Wednesday at Martha’s Vineyard, a Democratic stronghold and mythical vacation spot for the country’s political elite. They had been airlifted from Texas, on flights Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he arranged.
Despite local mobilization to help the new arrivals, the island “is not equipped to provide permanent housing and state officials have put in place a plan for a comprehensive humanitarian response,” said a statement from the Massachusetts governor’s office. Charlie Baker.
On Friday, authorities offered to send these migrants “to a new temporary shelter” at Joint Base Cape Cod. “Families will not be separated,” the statement said, noting that this base had previously served as an emergency shelter and that they would have access to health care and legal services.
Before being transferred to Cape Cod, some migrants said they did not know they would be sent to an island.
“human trafficking”
Democrat Julian Cyr, a state senator from Massachusetts, called for an investigation.
“Whether or not it fits the legal definition of human trafficking, it fits the moral definition of human trafficking. And I think we really need to look into that. I hope the Justice Department is looking into this issue,” Cyr told local television.
The transfer of immigrants to Democratic strongholds across the country has become a political weapon for many on the American right, who take the opportunity to denounce the policy of President Joe Biden, whom they accuse of having turned the border with Mexico into a sieve, and they try to put the immigration issue at the center of the debate prior to the mid-term elections on November 8.
On Thursday, two buses with migrants arrived in Washington near the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has tasked with dealing with the controversial immigration issue.
They were sent by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, campaigning for his re-election in Texas, a southern state heavily affected by the wave of illegal immigration from Central American countries.
The White House criticized these methods again this Friday, denouncing a “premeditated and cruel political staging.”
“They’re kids. They’re moms. They were running from communism. And what did Governors DeSantis and Abbott do to them? They used them as pawns, treating them like cattle,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.
“This is the type of tactics that we see in smugglers in places like Mexico and Guatemala. And for what? A photo session?” he asked.
Ron DeSantis ironically about the transfer. “By the way, they already made them leave (the island) by bus (…). They said ‘we want everyone, no one is illegal’ and (the migrants) left Martha’s Vineyard in 48 hours,” he launched.
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