Republican governor of Florida flies migrants to Martha’s Winery in political ‘stunt’ By Reuters

By Wealthy McKay and Ted Hesson

(Reuters) – Some residents of the rich liberal enclave of Martha’s Winery decried a transfer by Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to fly dozens of migrants to the holiday island as a political “stunt,” as native officers and volunteers scrambled to assist the confused new arrivals.

DeSantis took credit score for the 2 flights, which originated in San Antonio, Texas, in response to information from flight monitoring web site FlightAware. Geoff Freeman, the Martha’s Winery airport director, stated the flights had been carrying round 50 migrants and in response to native information stories, most had been Venezuelan.

The high-profile transfer comes as DeSantis seeks re-election in November and has been talked about as a potential presidential candidate in 2024. It mirrors campaigns by the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona to push duty for a file variety of border arrivals to Democratic strongholds throughout america, together with Washington, D.C., New York Metropolis and Chicago.

However in contrast to these different locations, Martha’s Winery is a small island in Massachusetts – south of Boston – and greatest generally known as a summer time respite for prosperous Individuals, together with former President Barack Obama, a Democrat who owns a multi-million greenback trip residence there.

Mike Savoy, 58, a nurse at Martha’s Winery Regional Excessive College, donated all the additional COVID-19 assessments he had available to assist the coming migrants get examined.

“That is hurting individuals. It is a stunt to make political factors and never caring about who will get harm. These individuals had been informed they had been going to get housing and jobs and had been dropped off to an island group that has restricted assets,” Savoy stated.

Residents are rallying to do their greatest to assist the migrants, housing them at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, the place persons are dropping off meals and different provides, he stated.

“I perceive there’s an immigration disaster and we should always all bear a few of the ache till there is a coherent coverage. However to do an unannounced journey is merciless.”

Neither Massachusetts authorities nor Martha’s Winery native officers instantly responded to requests for remark. The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark.

DeSantis first raised the thought of sending migrants to the island late final 12 months. He additionally instructed on the time that he might ship migrants to Delaware, the house state of U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat whose immigration insurance policies DeSantis and different Republicans oppose.

Reuters polling exhibits that immigration is a motivating difficulty for Republicans and the celebration has sought to attract consideration to it in races throughout the nation.

The Florida legislature appropriated $12 million to move migrants dwelling in america illegally from the state to different areas in its most up-to-date session, DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske stated in a press release.

“States like Massachusetts, New York, and California will higher facilitate the care of those people who they’ve invited into our nation,” Fenske stated.

Some 1.8 million migrants had been arrested on the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal 12 months, which started final October, however many have repeatedly crossed and are rapidly expelled to Mexico or different international locations underneath a public well being rule carried out in 2020 to curb the unfold of COVID.

A whole lot of hundreds of migrants who can’t be expelled — together with many Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans — as a result of Mexico won’t settle for them, or as a result of they’ve been granted exceptions, are allowed into america to pursue their asylum claims.

DeSantis stated in a information convention on Thursday that Biden “has refused to raise a finger” to safe the border.

“We have labored on revolutionary methods to have the ability to defend the state of Florida from the affect of Biden’s border insurance policies,” he stated with out immediately referring to the flights.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, one other Republican dealing with reelection in November, has bused greater than 10,000 migrants from his state to Washington, D.C., New York Metropolis and Chicago since April.