Opinion

Martha’s Vineyard Declares ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ — Over 50 Illegal Aliens!

   DailyWire.com
Natural color image of Martha's Vineyard acquired on September 23, 2013 by the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager.
Satellite Earth Art/Getty Images

NOW things are getting interesting.

A couple of Republican governors, Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Texas’ Greg Abbott, sparked a wildfire of fury and controversy on Thursday when they dispatched illegal aliens who came across the southern border — with the federal government looking the other way — to a pair of high-profile spots: The vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard.

For the record, Abbott has been dealing with this problem for months. And DeSantis has, too, as the Biden administration continues to dump undocumented foreigners all over the country, including Florida. Both became so fed up they decided to send the illegals to the most liberal places they could find.

DeSantis loaded up a couple of planes and flew them to the tiny island of Martha’s Vineyard, packed with 1 percenter liberals (the Obamas have a multi-million-dollar oceanside mansion there). Known among the locals as “The Vineyard,” the harbor towns are home to only about 15,000 people — and you can bet that not many of them look like the migrants who got off the planes.

Meanwhile, Abbott loaded up a few buses and moved his migrants across the country — dropping them off right in the front yard of Vice President Kamala Harris’ mansion. Harris famously declared last Sunday on “Meet the Press” that the border was “secure,” but what the illegals (their word, not mine) told reporters was truly remarkable.

“It is open, not closed. The border is open,” one man who was among the 100 or so foreigners dropped off by two buses said to Fox News.

“Everybody believes that the border is open,” he said. “It is open because we enter. We come in free, no problem. We came illegally, not legally.”

Boom. Open. Not secure. Harris was proven wrong in just five days — and we’ve got the truth from a man who just crossed the border illegally and ended up on her doorstep.

The usually tongue-tied White House spokesman, Karine Jean-Pierre, had clearly whipped up some talking points, which she pathetically repeated over and over as reporters finally did their job to try to get to the bottom of the story.

“So, you know, it’s the latest stunt from the governor,” she said of Abbott. “Another stunt of busing desperate migrants across the country. And he’s using them as a political — as a political ploy. I mean, this is what he’s been doing and it’s shameful. And I’ve said this before.” Then she said it again and again.

But the scene on Martha’s Vineyard was even more delicious. The woke liberal zillionaires there often post yard signs that say “we stand with immigrants … all are welcome here.” But there was complete chaos once they actually showed up.

How hilarious was it? The island’s authorities actually declared a “humanitarian crisis” — over 50 or so illegals.

“To our Island community, here is an update on current humanitarian crisis on Martha’s Vineyard….we thank people for their continued help,” one official posted on Twitter.

The post detailed the efforts the island was making to deal with the illegal immigrants, with the Dukes County Emergency Management Association saying officials are providing “shelter, food, and care” to them and that “a coalition of Vineyard towns, community-based, and nonprofit groups are assisting in this effort.”

Now step back for a second. THAT is exactly what Texas and Florida has been doing for months — years — on a far larger scale and often with little federal aid to handle what is clearly a crisis.

The hilarity was that the swank little island in Liberal Land flipped out over just 50 illegals. With just a couple buses and planes, the GOP governors had dramatically illustrated their plights — and exposed the hypocrisy of liberals who say they support migrants but then freak out when they show up on their manicured lawns.

Before the end of the day, Lisa Belcastro, coordinator for Martha’s Vineyard homeless shelter Harbor Homes, said the migrants couldn’t stay.

“The difficult challenges are, we have, at some point in time they have to move from here to somewhere else,” she said. “We cannot, we don’t have the services to take care of 50 immigrants, and we certainly don’t have housing. We’re in a housing crisis as we are on this island. And we don’t, we can’t house everyone here that lives here and work here. We don’t have housing for 50 more people.”

Well, the Obamas have 10 bedrooms and with the kids off to college are using only one.

DeSantis, the frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination should former Donald Trump not run (and perhaps even if he does), had played his hand just right — and he had a few trump cards left as the drama reached a crescendo.

“Their virtue-signaling is a fraud,” DeSantis said later in the day. “We take what is happening at the southern border very seriously, unlike some, and unlike the president of the United States, who has refused to lift a finger to secure that border.”

But he was just getting started, and he had a message targeted to liberals.

“If you have folks that are inclined to think Florida’s a good place, our message to them is that we are not a sanctuary state, and it’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction, and yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures,” DeSantis said.

He still had more.

“And all of those people in D.C. and New York were beating their chests when Trump was president, saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border,” DeSantis noted. “The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk and they’re so upset that this is happening. It just shows you their virtue-signaling is a fraud.”

Game, set, match.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Got a tip worth investigating?

Your information could be the missing piece to an important story. Submit your tip today and make a difference.

Submit Tip
The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Martha’s Vineyard Declares ‘Humanitarian Crisis’ — Over 50 Illegal Aliens!