While Florida's governor is busy shipping Texas' problems to Massachusetts, I have a better idea, how about we ship a bunch of those freely spending taxpayers money, crap spouting. politicians from Washington D.C. to I don't know, half to Venezuela, the rest of those useless fucks to El Salvador.
No surprise, but liberal hypocrisy is on full display in Martha’s Vineyard. All over town, there are signs that read
“We stand with immigrants... all are welcome here”
Until someone actually takes them up on the offer, then the Karen’s are on full display. “They can’t come here? We don’t have jobs! We don’t have housing!”
Who’s really being racist? I’d nominate the residents of Martha’s Vineyard. They are progressives SJW in name only. When it hits too close to home, it’s a loud bitch fest of “not in my neighborhood”
I'd hardly call Joint Base Cape Code a concentration camp. It has almost 2,000 residents, mostly Coast Guard families. I'm guessing that they chose JBCC because it was the only facility they had close to by which could easily absorb 50 people who have no money, but need beds, meals and showers. Heck from all reports these people have been given cell phones, have immigration attorneys visiting them and can leave at any time.
Martha's Vineyard is just an island, made up of 6 tiny towns, used mostly as a Summer getaway. Even if one of those little towns agreed to house and feed these people, they'd have no ongoing access to any support resources. It would also be more difficult for family to get to them, or vice versa, as it requires a ferry to get to/from Martha's Vineyard.
Net-net moving them to a state funded facility on the mainland made a lot of sense.
It really is check mate. There’s nothing you can say. How is it inhumane to send them to Martha’s Vineyard (should we all be so lucky) meanwhile they come in by the thousands a day to Texas, often times drowning in the Rio Grande because the dems need votes. The Sanctuary cities have now got to put their money where their mouth is and they got called out on their bullshit. As a general rule of thumb you can always defeat a lefty in an argument by challenging them to do themselves what they are always telling you and your family to do.
Trolling? Not really. Some sarcasm for sure. The hypocrisy on display is breathtaking. Those six tiny towns are among the richest in the country, and flush with cash and empty hotel rooms, but somehow they couldn't take care of 50 "asylum seekers"?
And can you imagine what the New York times headline would be if Texas Governor Abbott had rounded up 50 illegal aliens in Brownsville and shipped them to a Texas National Guard military base?
DE, I hear what you're saying, but it's not realistic to expect a small town that has nothing to do with these debates to foot the bill to put 50 refugees in luxury hotels indefinitely. Nevermind the fact that those hotels may not have agreed to house 50 refugees. And who was going to feed them, clothe them, provide personal care items, etc., etc.? Who was going to pay for ferry tickets for them to get off the island? I could go on.
There was nothing inhumane about moving the refugees to JBCC. They have access to cafeteria facilities, showers, beds, laundry facilities, etc - the same resources already used by Coast Guard and National Guard personnel. Family and immigration attorneys can also get to them much more easily.
I am as irritated as anyone about the border problems and I'm as right wing as just about anyone on here. But frankly I also wish that DeSantis would stop pulling these publicity stunts and start looking a little more Presidential.
I also wish that the news outlets would stop trying to spin this logical move of the immigrants to facilities better suited to care for them as some great display of hypocrisy - this is nothing more than fodder for people too emotional or stupid to grasp the logistical challenges of housing these people in a very small and isolated island tourism town.
^^^Texas is doing this because Texas needs help Rick. Laredo, El Paso, Del Rio, Brownsville they don't have the fucking room or resources either. They have thousands coming over each week. Nobody at the federal is doing anything to help. But again it's way down on the border in a red state, so who cares, not our problem. Let these blue cities pitch in too, the liberal elite tell everyone else they are better then everyone else anyway so lets see how they handle this issue when it's finally on their doorstep.
It's not being "spun" as hypocrisy, it's the epitome of actual hypocrisy. The idea that this rich, progressive, so called sanctuary that hosts over 100,000 tourists every year couldn't handle 50 immigrants is ludicrous. When it came time for them to put their money where the mouth is, they showed their true colors. The year round population is about 17,000. Clearly, they could have absorbed 50 newcomers, probably could have easily found them all jobs in the tourist industry. Instead they had them out of there in 48 hours.
@Muddy: I would have had zero problem if Texas flew these people to Boston or any other number of "Sanctuary Cities." But for DeSantis to wade in and spend $600k of Florida's money to fly immigrants on a private charter flight from Texas to Martha's Vineyard screams political stunt. I'm also sick of Fox News "tempest in a teapot" attempt at manufacturing controversy when these people are moved to a facility better suited for them.
===> "When it came time for them to put their money where the mouth is, they showed their true colors."
You mean by providing them with shelter, meals, play areas for the kids and arranging for better longer-term accommodations with much better access to resources? If that is what you mean by "true colors" then alrighty. 😉
You asked us to tell you how you were wrong and I told you. They can't work here legally so there are no jobs to give them and all of the facilities where they could be housed on the island are privately controlled. You can't force a hotel owner to accept refugees that he/she doesn't want on the property. The people of Martha's Vineyard are no more a homogenous entity than those in any other town. To further add to the complications is that most of these towns are very thinly staffed from an employee standpoint.
Moving them to JBCC was the right move for everyone - for the towns and for the immigrants. It makes great melodramatic theatre to ship them to a place with no public housing facilities and then accuse the towns of hypocrisy when they make alternative arrangements for those who need it, but it's flat out silly if you have any aptitude for critical thinking.
Yeah, they showed their true colors all right. Made a big show of welcome for 48 hours, but then couldn’t wait to get rid of them.
I don’t know if they can work legally or not. The Biden administration claims they are legal asylum seekers, so they may have work authorizations. I don’t know. Even if not, this rich enclave could easily sponsor 50 immigrants indefinitely, if they wanted to. Clearly, they didn’t. They got rid of them as soon as they could.
Sure, it’s a publicity stunt, no doubt about it. With thousands streaming across the border every day, a few busses and a charter flight are not going to provide any meaningful relief to the border. It looks like a pretty effective publicity stunt to me.
The Midwest county is grew up was mostly white, conservative and Republican. Just the type of place Icee and the east coast liberals would call racist.
Yet over the last 10 years or so, the county has quietly absorbed approximately 35,000 immigrants. Mostly all undocumented from Mexico and Central America. The school system is now 50% Hispanic.
I think it’s beyond hypocritical that Martha’s Vineyard, a self described sanctuary city, can’t accept a mere 50 immigrants when the conservative Republican county i described absorbed 35,000 with very little pushback. Sometimes the Democrats really need to examine their collective conscience who the real racists are.
What city in the US is prepared to house migrants that just show up on your doorstep? The border cities have to deal with thousands.
When I was in AZ this spring, the US Government dropped off a bunch of immigrants in Gila Bend in the middle of the night. If you've ever driven through that city, it's basically a one street city with a couple of stop lights. They had no way of dealing with a bus load of immigrants dropped at their door by the US Government in the middle of the night. Hell, they barely have one or two motels in that city.
===> "Yeah, they showed their true colors all right. Made a big show of welcome for 48 hours, but then couldn’t wait to get rid of them."
DE, I met you in person so I know you're not stupid. Why do you keep talking about these towns like they're some homogenous entity instead of a collection of private individuals? Not all people in Martha's Vineyard share the same political views.
To repeat what I said again, more explicitly...
You can't force a hotel owner to accept refugees that he/she doesn't want on the property. The people of Martha's Vineyard are no more a homogenous entity than those in any other town.
These temporary work authorizations take time to process and only get issued after asylum applications go through certain inspections. So right now they can't work and there are no public facilities in which to house them. Under those circumstances, I don't understand how anyone could fault the town they landed in for how they approached this. I don't know pretty much any small town anywhere that is equipped to serve refugees for any length of time, including my own here in FL.
All these blue "sanctuary cities" are all gung-ho till they start getting busloads of illegals then they immediately start bitchimg whether it's NYC, D.C., Chicago; etc - it's crazy and irresponsible to allow MILLIONS into the country illegally and in such a short period of time but when it comes to fucking-up our country it's a feature not a bug w.r.t. the current administration - the Dems want a loyal voting-block for decades to come a la the AA community post-1964.
Let’s call a spade a spade the dems know the demographic aspect to this, they want to turn Texas blue so they never will lose a presidential election again. But it might backfire on them because it’s seems as if the Hispanic vote is running 50/50 we’ll see what happens down the road. As far as Venezuelan refugees are concerned I’m not sure they are going to be too excited voting for commie policies that they ran from. We’ll see though.
Another aspect you won’t see in the media at all, in places like Chicago, the politics are extremely racialized. It’s about a third white, a third black and a third hispanic and how they draw up their districts is based on race. It’s almost stunning that it’s like that but it is. The black dems in Chicago really don’t want immigrants from hispanic countries in the city, they’ll lose power hence why they are bused to the suburbs.
I don't like this one bit, the truth is the migrants in question have no connection to Florida at all, they were recruited in Texas, Florida's Governor DeSantis saw a way to interject his political ambitions into the conversation, which is now all bout him, and has very little to do with immigration, this is nothing other than a shameless publicity stunt promoted by a guy who want's to run for president in 2024 seeing an opportunity to spend some taxpayer money to benefit himself, shame on Ron DeSantis for doing shit like this.
^ True about states helping each other out, but 50 Venezuelans in Texas isn't Hurricane Katrina, and this wasn't helping out, helping out would be send us some of your refugees, we'll care for them or send them back to where they came from. This was a publicity stunt, sorry you can cover a pig with lipstick and make-up as much as you like it's still a pig.
One last point, we still have asylum laws, and people have the right to asylum, change the law if you don't like it, don't break the law yourself.
Yeah, I agree 100% about it being a publicity stunt. No doubt about it. It is a dick move.
Still, the bottom line is there are a bunch of rich folks who like to put on airs and “pretend” to be SJW, but when the rubber meets the road they are proving to be exactly like the conservatives they hate so much.
Among all those millionaires, who probably all own companies and have connections can’t put up a thousand dollars for a motel and help them find a job.
I bet many of those folks have attended $35,000 a plate Obama fundraisers so don’t tell me they can’t fork over a bit of their own cash to support a cause they claim to believe in
All this shows is that rich Massachusetts liberals are full of shit hypocrites. To listen to the politicians around here they're solving the illegal scumbag alien issue by saving the fifty.
===> "I think it’s beyond hypocritical that Martha’s Vineyard, a self described sanctuary city, can’t accept a mere 50 immigrants when the conservative Republican county i described absorbed 35,000 with very little pushback."
That's apples to bananas and you know it. What happened in your county was organic - the first wave drifted there no doubt following agricultural jobs (where nobody is checking work authorizations) and then others followed. That is quite different than 50 people being shuttled into a place where they know nobody and have no ability to provide for themselves.
Honestly, for all of the reasons I posted above, I don't know how anyone can fault the town they landed in for how they handled this. These immigrants were sheltered, fed and then moved to a place better suited to provide them with ongoing support and access to resources.
I agree 100% with everyone here that what is happening at the border is fucked up and too many TX and AZ towns are bearing the brunt. But the hypocrisy narrative that some of you are so eager to spin just didn't happen here. I happen to know MA pretty well and there are tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who live and work there - just not on an isolated tourist island like Martha's Vineyard. From JBCC they will be much better positioned to connect with people they may know in the Boston metro area and better integrate into the community.
I have 3 relatives with second homes there and yup there are plenty of illegals in Massachusetts and in Martha's Vineyard. If the illegals had been given brooms and garden tools when they left the border, they'd find a place for them on the Vineyard. What I find appalling is all the sickening virtue signaling and back slapping by the politicians here for stepping up and helping 50 people. How about this liberal sanctuary city assholes.... Summer is over and there is plenty of unused space on the vineyard. Open your own fucking home to these people you NIMBY assholes.
Idk why Rick has a hard on for Martha’s Vineyard he must have family there or something and taking it personally.
Anyway (not directed at Dugan) at the end of the day you can’t criticize Desantis and Abbot without calling out the Biden Administration’s complete and total failure at the border. To do otherwise makes one look like such a hypocritical fuckhead. The lack of self awareness on some of these people. I thought Ken Burns made some great documentaries back in the day, but he goes on this week to compare what’s going on now to the Holocaust. What a fucking douchebag!
Dumping 50 people on a wealthy island is certainly similar to murdering 6 million people. No bigger group of Jew haters than those who call themselves progressive.
This entire conversation is just a bunch of folks getting all spun up by a wanna be demagogue, this has less than nothing to do with actually solving any problem, and is mainly a vehicle being used by a guy with access to your and my wallet, by virtue of his position, and instead of a debate on the merits, he decided to stick his hand in our collective pocket to get us to pay for his desire to be able to be the loudest voice in the conversation.
It’s a good wake-up call. The attitude has been that immigration is exclusively a boarder state issue. It’s not. We need legal immigration. We can’t have open borders. we can have both.
===> "Idk why Rick has a hard on for Martha’s Vineyard he must have family there or something and taking it personally."
My hard on relates to the utter lack of critical thinking in this thread. Dump 50 random strangers with no money on any small town with no public housing and there will be logistical challenges. Add to that the language barrier and inability to work legally and it gets even worse. Most small towns are simply not equipped to easily provide support services to large groups of indigent people.
But some people want to believe that this supports some greater hypocrisy narrative or has some deeper message. It doesn't. All this did was make DeSantis look like a political hack.
The 50 immigrants were sheltered and fed until more permanent arrangements could be made. Now they are in a place with easy access to ample food, beds, showers, cell phones, immigration attorneys, medical care and - for anyone who is confused - they can come and go as they please. Moving them was the right thing to do, not evidence of intolerance or lack of welcome.
"Most small towns are equipped to provide support to large groups of indigent people". Bullshit. You think Texas and Arizona are just one giant metropolis? It's a bunch of smaller towns, ill-equipped to deal with the 302,000 illegal aliens they have had to put up with. The rich shitheads on the Vineyard cannot cope? Bullshit. They don't want the migrants anywhere near them. A shitty home on the island costs 900,000 and they can't handle 50 criminals? Typical of progressives, they want the problem solved using other people's money and in other people's backyard. They are too "good" for these low-lifes. DeSantis is aweome.
Was this a giant troll with people's lives? Yes.
Do I think the left cares about that fact? No. They've been silent about Biden's flights around the country, including to Florida, with far more people.
The left is upset because DeSantis scored points against Democrats.
Imagine people in your neighborhood telling you you should not only take in the homeless, but feed them, bathe them and clothe them. But I can't let them into my home amd take care of them. But you should.
I find these topics on this site mostly hilarious, but I do admit, from sites dedicated to this type of discourse, this site seems way more genuine.
A couple of things to point out: 50 people in a town of 20k is not a big deal compared to what the border towns are facing. The border towns are nowhere near as wealthy and do not have the facilities. The speed at which these illegal immigrants were tossed out of Marty's Yard (and Chicago) is rank hypocrisy, plain and simple. There is plenty of vacancy and the government could have asserted its powers of eminent domain. But, this would mean that the people of Marty's Yard would have to oppose it, thereby further exposing their hypocrisy. Oh, and btw, Biden has been flying immigrants all over the country. Governors have just as much right to transport as does the federal government.
Illegal immigration is truly an issue. I met some childhood friends this weekend who both work for the government (think 3 letter organizations). While drug trafficking is of low concern, human trafficking is a real issue and more perverse imo. The real issue is the Biden administration has done nothing to quell the border crisis and we all agreed that its signals can be interpreted to encourage border crossing. To be fair, every administration has done a mostly poor job of handling this. We need to re-think what it means to be an immigrant here. This is by no means a simple issue. If the citizens vote to keep things the way they are, then be prepared for tent cities and shanty towns. It will drive wages down for the already poor. If strengthen the border, we might be creating the next Palestine, or at least a step up from concentration camps.
In reality, we actually need immigration. Our birth rate is in decline. These immigrants, surprisingly enough, might actually make good citizens (except english skills would be low). The overwhelming majority do want a better life and are willing to work and (except border crossing) obey laws.
Even Hillary has said open borders don’t work. She’s like democratic royalty - and she’s against the open borders stuff!
Let’s understand that our country’s government is spending money at a rate that will burden many future generations. The programs setup to assist legal American citizens will go broke.
Now they want to add more undocumented immigrants to get handouts too? This is not a prudent direction for our country. The best method to handle this is through legal immigration of documented people.
It’s imperative that we know who we are letting in. There must be a vetting process and immigrants must be tracked. There must also be consequences for those who decide to circumvent the legal process.
^ nobody who cares about our country is for open borders, that’s just a lot of nonsense, started by the Trump campaign in 2016, truth is there’s been no legitimate effort made to reform our immigration laws since Ronald Reagan dit it back in the eighties, both Bushes, Clinton, even Obama took a shot at it but the pseudo conservatives shut the attempts down, as a result we don’t have a coherent policy of immigration that works and it’s all because of a handful of folks that are too busy weaponizing the issue instead of actually trying to create a reasonable response to the actual problems.
Immigration Reform, is our memory really that bad?
In my lifetime I remember two different "Immigration Reform" laws passed. I'm not sure when, but I think they were in '86 and '06. Both times, we (the citizens) were told "This is the last time" when they granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Now they are going to do it again? I'm for LEGAL immigration, but if people coming across our border get to break the law, can I pick a few laws I want to ignore (break) without any consequences? I haven't heard statistics lately, but I do remember when the press would report that the majority of legal immigrants were against illegal immigration. The legal immigrants got in line and followed the rules.
We are supposed to be a nation of laws. I feel sorry for the Border Patrol/ICE agents trying to stem the tide, knowing terrible policies dictated by higher ups make their job nearly impossible, a mere drop in the bucket.
The point that most people miss, especially the democrats' useful idiots, is that immigration is not a problem. Our nation's immigration policy can certainly be improved, but for the most part it is not broken. Illegal aliens, caravans of drugs, 10+ years of democrats refusing to address illegal migration are the problem.
The moment you set foot in our nation without following the proper and lawful immigration protocols, you are a criminal. I am not going to pretend to know all relevant applicable federal and international laws and norms regarding how to treat illegal aliens, but they should be detained and deported without hesitation. just pack 'em all on a slow boat that can travel down the Atlantic Coast and deposit them back where they came from. They're criminals, so they could be prosecuted and sent to Camp X-Ray to serve their sentence. They certainly do not deserve the temperate climes and opportunities of the continental US.
When Obama and his AG refused to enforce the nation's immigration laws, they both became guilty of dereliction of duty and should have been tried for such. Biden and his Obama 2.0 admin are not even acknowledging that we have immigration laws. The whole lot of them should be criminally charged. The democrat party and everyone else on the left are frittering away our precious national heritage. They obviously do not care about America because they are doing nothing to protect America. Don't forget that the Venezuelans voted for Chavez. They chose populist socialism a few years ago. If they can, they will choose it again here, in America, to keep their freebies coming.
As for Martha's Vineyard and the rest of the east coast libs, just remember that these are the jackasses that insist we should all be driving $100,000 electric cars and running on human hamster wheels to get away from fossil fuels; yet refused to allow wind turbines in their precious bays because they feel they paid too much to have their panoramic views "spoiled".
===> "You think Texas and Arizona are just one giant metropolis? It's a bunch of smaller towns, ill-equipped to deal with the 302,000 illegal aliens they have had to put up with. The rich shitheads on the Vineyard cannot cope? Bullshit."
Ski, the states and the Feds are funding relief efforts in AZ and TX, not the individual towns. And yes, I don't disagree that what is happening on the border is fucking ridiculous. But dropping 50 broke strangers in a tiny town that has no public housing facilities and had no reason to prepare in advance for that sort of thing is just silly.
Those evil Martha's Vineyard residents immediately housed them, fed them and made arrangements to get them to a place that could more easily accommodate them for as long as needed (beds, ample food, showers, medical assistance, immigration attorneys, laundry facilities, cell phones, etc.) Oh yeah, I can see why you chuckleheads are so critical - that was a horrible thing to do to these immigrants. Much better to keep them isolated on an island only accessible by ferry with no ability to legally work, limited transportation options (remember illegal immigrants can't register cars), no public housing options and very limited support services. 😉
They can't work legally and can't even register a car - what the fuck are they going to do in a tiny town on Martha's Vineyard?
Dropping the illegal welfare cases on the Vineyard was brilliant. The idea the Feds are paying for everything going on at the border is simply false. The idea that no local governments on the border and are overwhelmed is also false. Residents on the Vineyard are rich, entitled, liberal scumbags. The idea there are no illegals on the Vineyard is ridiculous. I have friends and family there as well as Court cases. They have the money, its off-season so they have the rooms and there is plenty of food. The liberals managed to tolerate the illegals for almost 44 hours. They are assholes on the Vineyard and judging by those taking care of my cousins' lawn, there are plenty of simpatico illegals as well. These are not immigrants. These are illegals who should have been given a parachute and a plane ride to the air above Caracas. The idea that my tax money is paying for lawyers for these criminals is disgusting.
^ And which privately owned luxury hotels do you think were going to willingly become refugee camps for people who couldn't even feed themselves? You do realize that some of those hotel owners could be Republican, right? 😁
Even if there are other illegals in Martha's Vineyard - and there can't be many - what does that have to do with absorbing 50 indigents who don't know anyone there and can't support themselves? When illegals to settle into an area, it happens organically. They are following jobs and/or family already setup there and are invariably able to support themselves.
Anyone who sees any negative message in the compassionate and logical approach that the Vineyard took in dealing with this is just plain stupid. This is not a "two opinions are equally valid" moment - you really have to be a moron or blinded by bitter emotion not to comprehend how moving these people to the support facilities at JBCC was both the logical and humane approach.
^ you should add to that, the state of Florida does not consider persons from Venezuela or Cuba to be unauthorized aliens, they actually have legal status as refugees or asylum seekers, sorry but with all the certified fence jumpers out there, this was a purely political stunt, and not even well thought out, as far as I’m concerned this is a real black mark against the so called competence of Governor Ron DeSantis.
@25: Sadly I have to agree. I am still a big supporter of DeSantis for everything he has done for Florida, including keeping boys out of my daughters' school locker rooms and not allowing whack job teachers to introduce human sexuality concepts to grade schoolers (among many other things). But this was too much and I think it's going to hurt his image with Independents and some Republicans who might object to seeing people used in this way.
My guess is that he did this with an eye towards the Presidential primaries. He has to peel off some Trump supporters in order to win, so he's trying to showcase his right wing anti-immigration bona fides. But if he wins, I just hope this doesn't backfire on him in the general election.
Today the the Bexar County, Texas Sheriff’s office announced an investigation into this fiasco, true this is a Democrat sheriff, but if there’s a connection between DeSantis and the company he hired to set this up, the sheriff will find it, and if he receives any profit from this even to his campaign funds that will likely be the end of his presidential aspirations.
^ wishful thinking. Just a publicity stunt and it goes nowhere. A Democratic sheriff will investigate lol. Just like the F.B.I. criminals. Sorry Rick, these people are criminals and what happens to them means nothing to me. Fucking hate all illegals and there is no excuse or them being here except to create more poverty and reliance on Government.
Odd how the Martha’s Vineyard folks were ok with paying millions of dollars to move a lighthouse - but they declare a disaster when 50 undocumented immigrants arrive.
@Cash, by all accounts, the Martha's Vineyard residents were tripping over themselves to help. They immediately provided shelter in one of the local churches and food for the immigrants. I have no doubt that if the state had not offered accommodations and a myriad of other support services for the immigrants at JBCC, the residents of Martha's Vineyard would continue to help them.
The big challenges would have been coordinating longer-term accommodations, the ongoing provision of meals, medical care, clothing, sundries, communications and a myriad of other necessary support services. Martha's Vineyard does not have a ready built facility to provide all of this. I have no doubt that they would have pieced it together given time if they needed to, but with the state offering the close-by JBCC facility with all of this already in place, moving them there just made sense.
If President Biden decided to drool on the beach for a few days and wanted to bring 500 staff members....they'd have plenty of room and money to host. Illegal welfare rats are for the red states to handle, not the squeaky clean, above all y'all blue states.
It doesn’t take much in the way of critical reasoning to analyze the situation, only a little common sense. The facts: an island of rich, white progressives claimed to welcome immigrants and refugees.
And yes, they are as homogenous as any group outside of North Korea, voting 75% Democratic/Biden. But when the brown people actually showed up, they were tripping over themselves to get them out of there. Conclusion: rank hypocrisy.
Yes, they put on a good show for the cameras, but they never made any real effort to accommodate them on the island, which they easily could have done. They got them moved out of there in 44 hours, which means they started looking for ways to get rid of them as soon as the plane touched down.
The summer travel season is over, there were plenty of empty hotel rooms, and the island is flush with cash. And no, a hotel cannot refuse to accommodate someone based on race or national origin. That’s illegal. If someone had put up the money for them to stay in a hotel, they would’ve had to allow it.
And if they really are asylum-seekers, like the Biden administration pretends they are, they are allowed to work. They could easily have found jobs for 50 people on an island of 17,000 permanent residents. Somebody’s got to mow the grass on Obama’s 29 acre estate.
OK, the term “concentration camp” was a bit of hyperbole, and I’ve never been to Joint Base Cape Cod, but I’ve been to plenty of other military bases over the years, and they are not generally the most comfortable of places. And they are not built to accommodate refugees. They are generally built to accommodate some number of transient visitors with food and housing, but nothing like the tens of thousands of visitors a vacation spot like Martha’s Vineyard can handle at any given time. A major training base might be an exception, but that’s not what Joint Base Cape Cod is. I doubt any of the immigrants would say that they would prefer staying in a military barracks versus a bed-and-breakfast in Martha’s Vineyard.
Rick, you can put as much gold spray paint on this turd as you want, but it’s still a turd.
===> "And no, a hotel cannot refuse to accommodate someone based on race or national origin. That’s illegal. If someone had put up the money for them to stay in a hotel, they would’ve had to allow it."
This is where your logic falls apart. They were indigent with no direct method of payment (they would have needed to rely upon a guarantor), no permanent residence to speak of, in the U.S. (and thereby in the hotel) unlawfully...I could go on. Outside of a handful of very specific protected categories, innkeepers have broad latitude to refuse service if they believe that accepting the guests could cause harm to their operation. Most hotels are simply not equipped to provide the level of support needed by indigent refugees.
But OK, let's follow this logic through. In the minds of some on here, it would have been preferable for the local town to do the following...
1. Leave them on a harder to access isolated island, requiring visitors (lawyers, social workers, family/friends) to ferry to them;
2. Rent them all hotel rooms, for a potentially indefinite period of time, using third-party guarantors (after bludgeoning a few innkeepers into accepting them);
3. Somehow coordinate three meals a day to be delivered to 50 people at the hotels for potentially months;
4. Coordinate clothing deliveries and laundry pickup and servicing;
5. Shuttling these people to local medical facilities as needed;
6. Purchase and deliver sundries, communication devices, etc., all at the town level; and
7. Purchase and deliver any other goods needed on an ongoing basis (diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc., etc.).
...instead of moving them to a facility a short ferry ride away that immediately solves almost all of these problems? Does it not occur to those of you taking this position just how stupid that sounds? 😂
Instead of moving them to a facility perfectly designed to meet all of these needs AND staffed with paid personnel who are accustomed to dealing with living issue logistics, instead the towns should have managed all of these issues using staff who were not remotely accustomed to dealing with these issues.
Maybe the Town Clerk, in between stamping birth certificate copies and issuing dog licenses, could have been responsible for coordinating food deliveries and bringing people to the doctor.
Perhaps the Town Treasurer could be responsible for washing the refugees laundry each day.
Maybe the Town Council could alternate to keep a continuous carpool going to various other transportation and delivery needs.
I'm sure they would have done what was necessary if they had to, but with JBCC so close by and so ideally suited for these various tasks, it just made no sense.
Immigration is a federal issue. So it is not up to Massachusetts to decide what to do. I'm sure being sent to a military base is just very short term, and not necessarily all that bad either.
Most of these immigrants just come here to have a chance to work. They have left behind whatever they may have had where they came from.
Amazing that Texas and Arizona managed to handle 302,000 illegals and someone wants to give the lily-white rich liberals an award for handling 50. You usually make sense Rick, but you are defending the sleaziest most hypocritical assholes on earth when you defend the uber rich liberals of the Vineyard. Bet part of Covid was killing Thanksgiving on the Vineyard and keeping the day pure.
Rick, do you realize how stupid you sound shilling for the rich, white, so-called “progressive” racists of Martha’s Vineyard, especially as someone who claims to be a conservative? It’s easy to make excuses once you’re called upon to back up your words with action. I can see why the Martha’s Vineyard closet racists would want to justify their hypocrisy, but why you are doing it for them is mystifying.
You’re right about one thing though. It takes some real work and resources to actually welcome someone in need into your community, versus simply mouthing empty platitudes and vapid progressive slogans. Martha’s Vineyard chose the latter, putting on a fake veneer of compassion and support, but only for as long as it took the National Guard to show up, put them on buses, and deport them. They did so because they knew they would have the support of the liberal media, which fell for their little fake passion play hook, line, and sinker. I’m surprised that you fell for it also, though.
The Texas sheriff investigating DeSantis for unspecified crimes announced at a press conference yesterday that the immigrants were legal asylum-seekers and could have filled open jobs in San Antonio. If they were legal to work in Texas, they were legal to work in Martha’s Vineyard. And anyway, the so-called sanctuaries have never been too concerned about what is legal for immigrants to do and not to do. It was also reported yesterday that there were more than 50 open job listings on Martha’s Vineyard. Not all of the immigrants were even working age, so it seems likely that any of them that wanted to work on Martha’s vineyard could’ve been given a job.
Martha’s Vineyard was flush with vacant hotel rooms, cash, and open jobs, but didn’t even try to resettle a single one in their community. It’s hard to believe that not one of 50 immigrants didn’t want to stay there, at least temporarily for a few weeks, versus being housed in military barracks. I know which I would choose. Hint: it’s not the barracks. Your arguments don’t hold water. The rich, white progressives of Martha’s Vineyard are just a bunch of hypocrites, plain and simple.
^ they may very well be, but this is just a stunt, by a demagogue claiming they if you don’t vote for him the other side wants open borders, and that’s simply untrue.
Over the past twenty or so years, the nativists, have dodged the issue of fixing the border, refusing any attempt at a solution, actually that has been an ongoing issue in American history there’s always been friction and exploitation over this issue.
Don’t you think we can do a better job of dealing with immigration than constantly looking to own the other side?
25, I absolutely agree we could do a better job dealing with immigration. We could start by securing the border and allowing entry only through controlled access points, like every other country in the world. Everyone knows the vast majority of these illegal immigrants are not true asylum-seekers, but merely seeking better economic opportunities. I don’t fault them at all for seeking a better opportunity in life. I would do the same in their position. But that’s not a legal basis for asylum.
And yes, I agree 100% this was a political stunt. But it was a very effective one that revealed the complete hypocrisy of the Martha Vineyard so-called progressives. It really would have backfired on DeSantis if Martha’s Vineyard‘s residents had actually tried to resettle even just a few of them on the island. But no, just one more brown person was too much for the island.
@25, I'm not convinced the Dems are making a good faith effort to stem the tide. Their limp language conflicts with the spike of the last couple years. "Root causes" my ass, that sounds a lot like "nation building." It's a fantasy that sending more aid to El Salvador is going to make it paradise.
They certainly have a lot to gain, electorally, from millions of new Democratic voters. Lax enforcement + fewer safeguards against illegal voting + pathway to citizenship all benefits them. If they expected these to be Republican voters, it would be shut tighter than Fort Knox.
If the left wants to secure the border, I'm all ears to their proposals. Right now it looks like they don't give a shit and benefit from a _lack_ of security.
Really who’s benefiting, that’s crazy and undignified, you should know better, no one that cares about our country wants open uncontrolled borders, and if you can’t accept that as a starting point there’s no conversation to be had, and that’s why nothing gets fixed, is that your goal, if you don’t accept that I’m speaking in good faith and saying the same thing that an awful large portion of our countrymen & women, we will never agree on anything.
===> "It’s hard to believe that not one of 50 immigrants didn’t want to stay there, at least temporarily for a few weeks, versus being housed in military barracks. I know which I would choose. Hint: it’s not the barracks."
Are you an indigent immigrant with no ability to provide for your most basic needs? If not, then your own personal preferences are utterly irrelevant. Unlike you, they can't just order up a delivery meal on Uber Eats or hop in their cars and purchase needed goods and services from local stores. Trying to use tourist hotels as refugee shelters is utterly asinine if you have any better option, which in this case they did in the form of a nearby JBCC facility.
I am "shilling" for the people of Martha's Vineyard because, when you actually take a clear-eyed view of the facts on the ground (which have been covered in painful detail above), they did all the right things under the circumstances. I'm not going to demonize another group of people just because I don't agree with their politics and neither should anyone else who claims to have any degrees of intellect and emotional control.
It used to be primarily the province of whiny hypersensitive Dems to twist facts and engage in mental gymnastics in order to conjure up an emotionally satisfying narrative. It is beyond disappointing to see grown ass male Republicans now engaging in the same foolishness.
"Really who’s benefiting, that’s crazy and undignified"
No, that's the question we should ask about every policy proposal. And when several proposals work together towards the same ends, we should ask mercilessly.
Tomorrow, Biden could re-implement his predecessor's policies and stem the flow within months. It wouldn't cost anything to fund the Border Patrol, rather than demoralize and demonize them, for one.
If they care about this issue, why can't they take these baby steps?
I don’t think his predecessor is how we should measure very much, you mean the guy who said Mexico was going to pay for the wall, then got Steve Bannion to solicit donations for the construction that Bannion and the rest lined their pockets wth, or are you talking about the guy who said they’re murderers , rapists and I assume a few are good people, there’s someone to emulate right there, I say give up the back story about the bullshit, and let’s get to work, if y’all keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got, my feelings are known, stop trying to change my mind and sit down and have the real conversation how do we make this better.
^ The Wall and Trump's inflammatory language are a distraction. The Remain in Mexico policy and not demonizing the Border Patrol worked just fine. Biden could re-implement these tomorrow. What's stopping him?
A real conversation requires good faith. The Dems actions seem geared towards pouring more illegal immigrants into our system and giving them the vote.
I'd love to be proven wrong on this with actual policies and statistics, but the cynical one fits the data.
You keep saying the same thing but the guys that have the ability to fix things obviously see it very differently, they’re not going to listen to lectures and whataboutisms, put forth some proposals and start working out where your thoughts converge, else this is a useless waste of time, just like when the shoe was on the other foot
One way to deal with this is a law that if you are ever caught here illegally you will be forever unable to become a citizen and subsequent offenses are dealt with by the use of solitary confinement under terrible conditions. This should be published worldwide. The people who sneak in are never, ever worth having as citizens.
As no surprise, whatsoever, the "migrants" suing DeSantis are actually a globalist coalition of Soros and other leftist organizations dedicated to the destruction of American society, law, and order.
101 comments
Don’t come here and expect a red carpet, and hand outs!
They should teach them English while they are there - so they can become productive contributing members of society.
“We stand with immigrants... all are welcome here”
Until someone actually takes them up on the offer, then the Karen’s are on full display. “They can’t come here? We don’t have jobs! We don’t have housing!”
Yeah motorhead, with that type it's thoughts and feelings count, not actual actions.
I'd hardly call Joint Base Cape Code a concentration camp. It has almost 2,000 residents, mostly Coast Guard families. I'm guessing that they chose JBCC because it was the only facility they had close to by which could easily absorb 50 people who have no money, but need beds, meals and showers. Heck from all reports these people have been given cell phones, have immigration attorneys visiting them and can leave at any time.
Martha's Vineyard is just an island, made up of 6 tiny towns, used mostly as a Summer getaway. Even if one of those little towns agreed to house and feed these people, they'd have no ongoing access to any support resources. It would also be more difficult for family to get to them, or vice versa, as it requires a ferry to get to/from Martha's Vineyard.
Net-net moving them to a state funded facility on the mainland made a lot of sense.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/martha…
And can you imagine what the New York times headline would be if Texas Governor Abbott had rounded up 50 illegal aliens in Brownsville and shipped them to a Texas National Guard military base?
There was nothing inhumane about moving the refugees to JBCC. They have access to cafeteria facilities, showers, beds, laundry facilities, etc - the same resources already used by Coast Guard and National Guard personnel. Family and immigration attorneys can also get to them much more easily.
I am as irritated as anyone about the border problems and I'm as right wing as just about anyone on here. But frankly I also wish that DeSantis would stop pulling these publicity stunts and start looking a little more Presidential.
I also wish that the news outlets would stop trying to spin this logical move of the immigrants to facilities better suited to care for them as some great display of hypocrisy - this is nothing more than fodder for people too emotional or stupid to grasp the logistical challenges of housing these people in a very small and isolated island tourism town.
You mean by providing them with shelter, meals, play areas for the kids and arranging for better longer-term accommodations with much better access to resources? If that is what you mean by "true colors" then alrighty. 😉
You asked us to tell you how you were wrong and I told you. They can't work here legally so there are no jobs to give them and all of the facilities where they could be housed on the island are privately controlled. You can't force a hotel owner to accept refugees that he/she doesn't want on the property. The people of Martha's Vineyard are no more a homogenous entity than those in any other town. To further add to the complications is that most of these towns are very thinly staffed from an employee standpoint.
Moving them to JBCC was the right move for everyone - for the towns and for the immigrants. It makes great melodramatic theatre to ship them to a place with no public housing facilities and then accuse the towns of hypocrisy when they make alternative arrangements for those who need it, but it's flat out silly if you have any aptitude for critical thinking.
I don’t know if they can work legally or not. The Biden administration claims they are legal asylum seekers, so they may have work authorizations. I don’t know. Even if not, this rich enclave could easily sponsor 50 immigrants indefinitely, if they wanted to. Clearly, they didn’t. They got rid of them as soon as they could.
Sure, it’s a publicity stunt, no doubt about it. With thousands streaming across the border every day, a few busses and a charter flight are not going to provide any meaningful relief to the border. It looks like a pretty effective publicity stunt to me.
Yet over the last 10 years or so, the county has quietly absorbed approximately 35,000 immigrants. Mostly all undocumented from Mexico and Central America. The school system is now 50% Hispanic.
I think it’s beyond hypocritical that Martha’s Vineyard, a self described sanctuary city, can’t accept a mere 50 immigrants when the conservative Republican county i described absorbed 35,000 with very little pushback. Sometimes the Democrats really need to examine their collective conscience who the real racists are.
When I was in AZ this spring, the US Government dropped off a bunch of immigrants in Gila Bend in the middle of the night. If you've ever driven through that city, it's basically a one street city with a couple of stop lights. They had no way of dealing with a bus load of immigrants dropped at their door by the US Government in the middle of the night. Hell, they barely have one or two motels in that city.
DE, I met you in person so I know you're not stupid. Why do you keep talking about these towns like they're some homogenous entity instead of a collection of private individuals? Not all people in Martha's Vineyard share the same political views.
To repeat what I said again, more explicitly...
You can't force a hotel owner to accept refugees that he/she doesn't want on the property. The people of Martha's Vineyard are no more a homogenous entity than those in any other town.
These temporary work authorizations take time to process and only get issued after asylum applications go through certain inspections. So right now they can't work and there are no public facilities in which to house them. Under those circumstances, I don't understand how anyone could fault the town they landed in for how they approached this. I don't know pretty much any small town anywhere that is equipped to serve refugees for any length of time, including my own here in FL.
Another aspect you won’t see in the media at all, in places like Chicago, the politics are extremely racialized. It’s about a third white, a third black and a third hispanic and how they draw up their districts is based on race. It’s almost stunning that it’s like that but it is. The black dems in Chicago really don’t want immigrants from hispanic countries in the city, they’ll lose power hence why they are bused to the suburbs.
'If you wanted an anti Latino anti immigrant thread you could have just labeled it that'
^ exactly, us beaners need to stick together in the fight against whitey. KILL WHITEY!
https://tuscl.net/photos/6327ff59234a8
One last point, we still have asylum laws, and people have the right to asylum, change the law if you don't like it, don't break the law yourself.
Still, the bottom line is there are a bunch of rich folks who like to put on airs and “pretend” to be SJW, but when the rubber meets the road they are proving to be exactly like the conservatives they hate so much.
Among all those millionaires, who probably all own companies and have connections can’t put up a thousand dollars for a motel and help them find a job.
I bet many of those folks have attended $35,000 a plate Obama fundraisers so don’t tell me they can’t fork over a bit of their own cash to support a cause they claim to believe in
That's apples to bananas and you know it. What happened in your county was organic - the first wave drifted there no doubt following agricultural jobs (where nobody is checking work authorizations) and then others followed. That is quite different than 50 people being shuttled into a place where they know nobody and have no ability to provide for themselves.
I agree 100% with everyone here that what is happening at the border is fucked up and too many TX and AZ towns are bearing the brunt. But the hypocrisy narrative that some of you are so eager to spin just didn't happen here. I happen to know MA pretty well and there are tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who live and work there - just not on an isolated tourist island like Martha's Vineyard. From JBCC they will be much better positioned to connect with people they may know in the Boston metro area and better integrate into the community.
Anyway (not directed at Dugan) at the end of the day you can’t criticize Desantis and Abbot without calling out the Biden Administration’s complete and total failure at the border. To do otherwise makes one look like such a hypocritical fuckhead. The lack of self awareness on some of these people. I thought Ken Burns made some great documentaries back in the day, but he goes on this week to compare what’s going on now to the Holocaust. What a fucking douchebag!
My hard on relates to the utter lack of critical thinking in this thread. Dump 50 random strangers with no money on any small town with no public housing and there will be logistical challenges. Add to that the language barrier and inability to work legally and it gets even worse. Most small towns are simply not equipped to easily provide support services to large groups of indigent people.
But some people want to believe that this supports some greater hypocrisy narrative or has some deeper message. It doesn't. All this did was make DeSantis look like a political hack.
The 50 immigrants were sheltered and fed until more permanent arrangements could be made. Now they are in a place with easy access to ample food, beds, showers, cell phones, immigration attorneys, medical care and - for anyone who is confused - they can come and go as they please. Moving them was the right thing to do, not evidence of intolerance or lack of welcome.
Do I think the left cares about that fact? No. They've been silent about Biden's flights around the country, including to Florida, with far more people.
The left is upset because DeSantis scored points against Democrats.
A couple of things to point out: 50 people in a town of 20k is not a big deal compared to what the border towns are facing. The border towns are nowhere near as wealthy and do not have the facilities. The speed at which these illegal immigrants were tossed out of Marty's Yard (and Chicago) is rank hypocrisy, plain and simple. There is plenty of vacancy and the government could have asserted its powers of eminent domain. But, this would mean that the people of Marty's Yard would have to oppose it, thereby further exposing their hypocrisy. Oh, and btw, Biden has been flying immigrants all over the country. Governors have just as much right to transport as does the federal government.
Illegal immigration is truly an issue. I met some childhood friends this weekend who both work for the government (think 3 letter organizations). While drug trafficking is of low concern, human trafficking is a real issue and more perverse imo. The real issue is the Biden administration has done nothing to quell the border crisis and we all agreed that its signals can be interpreted to encourage border crossing. To be fair, every administration has done a mostly poor job of handling this. We need to re-think what it means to be an immigrant here. This is by no means a simple issue. If the citizens vote to keep things the way they are, then be prepared for tent cities and shanty towns. It will drive wages down for the already poor. If strengthen the border, we might be creating the next Palestine, or at least a step up from concentration camps.
In reality, we actually need immigration. Our birth rate is in decline. These immigrants, surprisingly enough, might actually make good citizens (except english skills would be low). The overwhelming majority do want a better life and are willing to work and (except border crossing) obey laws.
Let’s understand that our country’s government is spending money at a rate that will burden many future generations. The programs setup to assist legal American citizens will go broke.
Now they want to add more undocumented immigrants to get handouts too? This is not a prudent direction for our country. The best method to handle this is through legal immigration of documented people.
It’s imperative that we know who we are letting in. There must be a vetting process and immigrants must be tracked. There must also be consequences for those who decide to circumvent the legal process.
I’ve never heard of an Auschwitz type of camp on that beautiful island.
It’s actually on Cape Cod not on the island.
https://calthomas.com/2022/09/the-illega…
https://calthomas.com/2022/09/chickens-h…
In my lifetime I remember two different "Immigration Reform" laws passed. I'm not sure when, but I think they were in '86 and '06. Both times, we (the citizens) were told "This is the last time" when they granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Now they are going to do it again? I'm for LEGAL immigration, but if people coming across our border get to break the law, can I pick a few laws I want to ignore (break) without any consequences? I haven't heard statistics lately, but I do remember when the press would report that the majority of legal immigrants were against illegal immigration. The legal immigrants got in line and followed the rules.
We are supposed to be a nation of laws. I feel sorry for the Border Patrol/ICE agents trying to stem the tide, knowing terrible policies dictated by higher ups make their job nearly impossible, a mere drop in the bucket.
Rant over. <Stepping down from my soapbox>
The moment you set foot in our nation without following the proper and lawful immigration protocols, you are a criminal. I am not going to pretend to know all relevant applicable federal and international laws and norms regarding how to treat illegal aliens, but they should be detained and deported without hesitation. just pack 'em all on a slow boat that can travel down the Atlantic Coast and deposit them back where they came from. They're criminals, so they could be prosecuted and sent to Camp X-Ray to serve their sentence. They certainly do not deserve the temperate climes and opportunities of the continental US.
When Obama and his AG refused to enforce the nation's immigration laws, they both became guilty of dereliction of duty and should have been tried for such. Biden and his Obama 2.0 admin are not even acknowledging that we have immigration laws. The whole lot of them should be criminally charged. The democrat party and everyone else on the left are frittering away our precious national heritage. They obviously do not care about America because they are doing nothing to protect America. Don't forget that the Venezuelans voted for Chavez. They chose populist socialism a few years ago. If they can, they will choose it again here, in America, to keep their freebies coming.
Do not say you were not warned.
“we support immigrants - with leaf blowers”
Ski, the states and the Feds are funding relief efforts in AZ and TX, not the individual towns. And yes, I don't disagree that what is happening on the border is fucking ridiculous. But dropping 50 broke strangers in a tiny town that has no public housing facilities and had no reason to prepare in advance for that sort of thing is just silly.
Those evil Martha's Vineyard residents immediately housed them, fed them and made arrangements to get them to a place that could more easily accommodate them for as long as needed (beds, ample food, showers, medical assistance, immigration attorneys, laundry facilities, cell phones, etc.) Oh yeah, I can see why you chuckleheads are so critical - that was a horrible thing to do to these immigrants. Much better to keep them isolated on an island only accessible by ferry with no ability to legally work, limited transportation options (remember illegal immigrants can't register cars), no public housing options and very limited support services. 😉
They can't work legally and can't even register a car - what the fuck are they going to do in a tiny town on Martha's Vineyard?
Even if there are other illegals in Martha's Vineyard - and there can't be many - what does that have to do with absorbing 50 indigents who don't know anyone there and can't support themselves? When illegals to settle into an area, it happens organically. They are following jobs and/or family already setup there and are invariably able to support themselves.
Anyone who sees any negative message in the compassionate and logical approach that the Vineyard took in dealing with this is just plain stupid. This is not a "two opinions are equally valid" moment - you really have to be a moron or blinded by bitter emotion not to comprehend how moving these people to the support facilities at JBCC was both the logical and humane approach.
My guess is that he did this with an eye towards the Presidential primaries. He has to peel off some Trump supporters in order to win, so he's trying to showcase his right wing anti-immigration bona fides. But if he wins, I just hope this doesn't backfire on him in the general election.
The big challenges would have been coordinating longer-term accommodations, the ongoing provision of meals, medical care, clothing, sundries, communications and a myriad of other necessary support services. Martha's Vineyard does not have a ready built facility to provide all of this. I have no doubt that they would have pieced it together given time if they needed to, but with the state offering the close-by JBCC facility with all of this already in place, moving them there just made sense.
https://tuscl.net/photo.php?id=11951
And yes, they are as homogenous as any group outside of North Korea, voting 75% Democratic/Biden. But when the brown people actually showed up, they were tripping over themselves to get them out of there. Conclusion: rank hypocrisy.
Yes, they put on a good show for the cameras, but they never made any real effort to accommodate them on the island, which they easily could have done. They got them moved out of there in 44 hours, which means they started looking for ways to get rid of them as soon as the plane touched down.
The summer travel season is over, there were plenty of empty hotel rooms, and the island is flush with cash. And no, a hotel cannot refuse to accommodate someone based on race or national origin. That’s illegal. If someone had put up the money for them to stay in a hotel, they would’ve had to allow it.
And if they really are asylum-seekers, like the Biden administration pretends they are, they are allowed to work. They could easily have found jobs for 50 people on an island of 17,000 permanent residents. Somebody’s got to mow the grass on Obama’s 29 acre estate.
OK, the term “concentration camp” was a bit of hyperbole, and I’ve never been to Joint Base Cape Cod, but I’ve been to plenty of other military bases over the years, and they are not generally the most comfortable of places. And they are not built to accommodate refugees. They are generally built to accommodate some number of transient visitors with food and housing, but nothing like the tens of thousands of visitors a vacation spot like Martha’s Vineyard can handle at any given time. A major training base might be an exception, but that’s not what Joint Base Cape Cod is. I doubt any of the immigrants would say that they would prefer staying in a military barracks versus a bed-and-breakfast in Martha’s Vineyard.
Rick, you can put as much gold spray paint on this turd as you want, but it’s still a turd.
This is where your logic falls apart. They were indigent with no direct method of payment (they would have needed to rely upon a guarantor), no permanent residence to speak of, in the U.S. (and thereby in the hotel) unlawfully...I could go on. Outside of a handful of very specific protected categories, innkeepers have broad latitude to refuse service if they believe that accepting the guests could cause harm to their operation. Most hotels are simply not equipped to provide the level of support needed by indigent refugees.
But OK, let's follow this logic through. In the minds of some on here, it would have been preferable for the local town to do the following...
1. Leave them on a harder to access isolated island, requiring visitors (lawyers, social workers, family/friends) to ferry to them;
2. Rent them all hotel rooms, for a potentially indefinite period of time, using third-party guarantors (after bludgeoning a few innkeepers into accepting them);
3. Somehow coordinate three meals a day to be delivered to 50 people at the hotels for potentially months;
4. Coordinate clothing deliveries and laundry pickup and servicing;
5. Shuttling these people to local medical facilities as needed;
6. Purchase and deliver sundries, communication devices, etc., all at the town level; and
7. Purchase and deliver any other goods needed on an ongoing basis (diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc., etc.).
...instead of moving them to a facility a short ferry ride away that immediately solves almost all of these problems? Does it not occur to those of you taking this position just how stupid that sounds? 😂
Instead of moving them to a facility perfectly designed to meet all of these needs AND staffed with paid personnel who are accustomed to dealing with living issue logistics, instead the towns should have managed all of these issues using staff who were not remotely accustomed to dealing with these issues.
Maybe the Town Clerk, in between stamping birth certificate copies and issuing dog licenses, could have been responsible for coordinating food deliveries and bringing people to the doctor.
Perhaps the Town Treasurer could be responsible for washing the refugees laundry each day.
Maybe the Town Council could alternate to keep a continuous carpool going to various other transportation and delivery needs.
LMAO.
Most of these immigrants just come here to have a chance to work. They have left behind whatever they may have had where they came from.
SJG
You’re right about one thing though. It takes some real work and resources to actually welcome someone in need into your community, versus simply mouthing empty platitudes and vapid progressive slogans. Martha’s Vineyard chose the latter, putting on a fake veneer of compassion and support, but only for as long as it took the National Guard to show up, put them on buses, and deport them. They did so because they knew they would have the support of the liberal media, which fell for their little fake passion play hook, line, and sinker. I’m surprised that you fell for it also, though.
The Texas sheriff investigating DeSantis for unspecified crimes announced at a press conference yesterday that the immigrants were legal asylum-seekers and could have filled open jobs in San Antonio. If they were legal to work in Texas, they were legal to work in Martha’s Vineyard. And anyway, the so-called sanctuaries have never been too concerned about what is legal for immigrants to do and not to do. It was also reported yesterday that there were more than 50 open job listings on Martha’s Vineyard. Not all of the immigrants were even working age, so it seems likely that any of them that wanted to work on Martha’s vineyard could’ve been given a job.
Martha’s Vineyard was flush with vacant hotel rooms, cash, and open jobs, but didn’t even try to resettle a single one in their community. It’s hard to believe that not one of 50 immigrants didn’t want to stay there, at least temporarily for a few weeks, versus being housed in military barracks. I know which I would choose. Hint: it’s not the barracks. Your arguments don’t hold water. The rich, white progressives of Martha’s Vineyard are just a bunch of hypocrites, plain and simple.
Over the past twenty or so years, the nativists, have dodged the issue of fixing the border, refusing any attempt at a solution, actually that has been an ongoing issue in American history there’s always been friction and exploitation over this issue.
Don’t you think we can do a better job of dealing with immigration than constantly looking to own the other side?
And yes, I agree 100% this was a political stunt. But it was a very effective one that revealed the complete hypocrisy of the Martha Vineyard so-called progressives. It really would have backfired on DeSantis if Martha’s Vineyard‘s residents had actually tried to resettle even just a few of them on the island. But no, just one more brown person was too much for the island.
They certainly have a lot to gain, electorally, from millions of new Democratic voters. Lax enforcement + fewer safeguards against illegal voting + pathway to citizenship all benefits them. If they expected these to be Republican voters, it would be shut tighter than Fort Knox.
If the left wants to secure the border, I'm all ears to their proposals. Right now it looks like they don't give a shit and benefit from a _lack_ of security.
Are you an indigent immigrant with no ability to provide for your most basic needs? If not, then your own personal preferences are utterly irrelevant. Unlike you, they can't just order up a delivery meal on Uber Eats or hop in their cars and purchase needed goods and services from local stores. Trying to use tourist hotels as refugee shelters is utterly asinine if you have any better option, which in this case they did in the form of a nearby JBCC facility.
I am "shilling" for the people of Martha's Vineyard because, when you actually take a clear-eyed view of the facts on the ground (which have been covered in painful detail above), they did all the right things under the circumstances. I'm not going to demonize another group of people just because I don't agree with their politics and neither should anyone else who claims to have any degrees of intellect and emotional control.
It used to be primarily the province of whiny hypersensitive Dems to twist facts and engage in mental gymnastics in order to conjure up an emotionally satisfying narrative. It is beyond disappointing to see grown ass male Republicans now engaging in the same foolishness.
No, that's the question we should ask about every policy proposal. And when several proposals work together towards the same ends, we should ask mercilessly.
Tomorrow, Biden could re-implement his predecessor's policies and stem the flow within months. It wouldn't cost anything to fund the Border Patrol, rather than demoralize and demonize them, for one.
If they care about this issue, why can't they take these baby steps?
A real conversation requires good faith. The Dems actions seem geared towards pouring more illegal immigrants into our system and giving them the vote.
I'd love to be proven wrong on this with actual policies and statistics, but the cynical one fits the data.
Asylum Seekers Suing Ron Disantis:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aERL951Ot5…" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
SJG
It keeps proving true
SJG
School of Rock AllStars perform "Highway Star" by Deep Purple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oGjZRe1…
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/activis…
Martha's Vineyard, use zoom outs to see where this is and how small it is:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Martha…
SJG
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_YodiJ…