Since 2014, over 6.8 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants have fled to other countries, causing one of the largest refugee crises in the world. More than 150,000 have come to the United States in the past year alone. The U.S. does not recognize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as the country’s legitimate president, limiting the ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to send migrants back.
Most Democrats support granting asylum to these refugees, most Republicans do not. Never mind the fact that it's sanctions put in place by the Trump administration that are partially at fault for Venezuela's collapse. Let's be blunt: Trump and his MAGA supporters don't want any brown people coming to the US, and are prepared to tell any lie they need to to manipulate non-white immigrants and to stoke up hate and fear of them.
Consider this callous stunt that took place earlier this month, and the lies used to bolster it. About 50 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, arrived unannounced on two chartered planes from Texas at the island of Martha's Vineyard on September 14. The flights were organized by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, an outspoken critic of the Biden administration's immigration policies. Persons not yet identified told the migrants a litany of lies in order to get them to board the planes. From Rolling Stone: "A brochure given to migrants in order to convince them to board planes headed from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, falsely suggested they would be given access to refugee resettlement benefits like housing assistance, job interviews, and even help with cash and food."
Some of the migrants have since sued DeSantis and other Florida officials. Their lawsuit, (from Vox.com), "claims that they were essentially swindled into agreeing to travel to Martha’s Vineyard aboard two flights chartered by Florida officials. The flights cost more than $600,000 in taxpayer dollars.
They argue that DeSantis and other Florida officials schemed to target migrants on the streets outside a migrant shelter in San Antonio, Texas, offering McDonald’s gift certificates and free hotel stays and promising them employment, housing, educational opportunities, and other assistance if they boarded flights to other states. (Texas Sheriff Javier) Salazar said Monday that a Venezuelan migrant was paid a "bird dog fee" to recruit them.
They claim they were told they were going to Boston or Washington, DC, but instead were taken to Martha’s Vineyard, where they found no such resources nor even food or water until locals rushed to the aid of the unexpected arrivals. They were later moved to a military base shelter at Cape Cod."
But why did DeSantis organize the flights? As a self-aggrandizing stunt of course. A cruel trick played on vulnerable human beings to help him curry favor with his supporters. From Business Insider: "When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis orchestrated flights sending migrants and asylum seekers from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, many observers saw a stunt aimed at raising the Republican's political profile ahead of a potential 2024 White House run.
But according to GOP operatives, the move also gave Republicans running for Congress the opportunity to home in on illegal immigration and border security, topics they've clamored to put at the center of this fall's midterm elections.
DeSantis' timing is ideal for Republicans and allows the governor to continue casting himself as a national GOP leader that others in the party will follow."
And in the most disheartening twist of the story, Republicans are attempting to gaslight Democrats and the state of Massachusetts as somehow being the villains of this story. For that myth and others, let's move on to:
Part Eighteen: Venezuelan Refugees
Myth: After calling itself a place where migrants are welcome, Martha's Vineyard actually treated the migrants with indifference.
Fact: From NPR: "The office for Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced Friday (9/16/22) that the state's emergency management agency relocated the migrants to Joint Base Cape Cod. There, the state will provide shelter, food and other essential services, Baker said. Baker also plans to activate 125 members of the state National Guard to assist. "We
are grateful to the providers, volunteers and local officials that
stepped up on Martha's Vineyard over the past few days to provide
immediate services to these individuals," Baker said in a statement.
"Our Administration has been working across state government to develop a
plan to ensure these individuals will have access to the services they
need going forward, and Joint Base Cape Cod is well equipped to serve
these needs."
Myth: The Martha's Vineyard asylum seekers and others like them are illegal, or "undocumented" immigrants.
Fact: The United States has granted temporary protected status (TPS) for Venezuelans. Therefore, once they have crossed into the US and been released into the general population to await their asylum hearings, these Venezuelans are here legally.
Myth: The transportation of the Martha's Vineyard asylum seekers was a legitimate extension of the authority and funding the state of Florida granted to Governor DeSantis.
Fact: Florida lawmakers allocated $12 million in the state budget this year to "facilitate the transport of authorized aliens from this state". Texas is not Florida. DeSantis has baselessly claimed, "Most of them are intending to come to Florida."
Myth: The Martha's Vineyard group were not lied to or misled (a DeSantis claim on Fox News).
Fact: "They
were told, "You have a hearing in San Antonio, but don’t worry, we’ll
take you to Boston,"" said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive
director for Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston. He said dozens of the
migrants had told his team they only had been informed midair that they
were going to land in tony Martha’s Vineyard rather than Boston. "They
were also told there would be employment opportunities and immigration
relief available to them if they boarded the plane," Mr.
Espinoza-Madrigal said. "That’s not only state interference with federal
immigration matters, it’s also a violation of our clients’ civil
rights."" - From a New York Times article about the migrants taking legal action against DeSantis.
Myth: Communities such as Martha's Vineyard have invited DeSantis' actions: "They said they wanted this," he told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. "They said they were a sanctuary jurisdiction."
Fact: "That’s not what "sanctuary" is generally understood to mean. (There is
no concrete definition.) Sanctuary states and cities are ones in which
law enforcement promises not to inform federal authorities if they learn
that someone is in the country without documentation. There’s a very
practical reason for this: If immigrants think talking to police will
result in their deportation, they won’t talk to police. That makes
solving crimes much more difficult." - From the New York Times.
Myth: Migrants are responsible for a wave of illegal fentanyl crossing the border.
Fact: The probability that individuals crossing the border are carrying some kind of illicit narcotic is negligible. Most smuggling through official ports of entry, hidden in cars and tractor-trailers.
To summarize, the hostility that conservatives are showing toward the current wave of asylum seekers is indicative of where the Republican party stands as a whole. It's can no longer define a party platform other than overwhelming hostility toward those its sees as outsiders. From a 2018 article in The Atlantic by Adam Serwer titled, The Cruelty is the Point:
"Their shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump."
"Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to
admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the
smiling white men in (old-time) lynching photographs are the Trump supporters
whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see
as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the
loneliness and atomization of modern life."
"This isn’t incoherent. It reflects a clear principle: Only the president
and his allies, his supporters, and their anointed are entitled to the
rights and protections of the law, and if necessary, immunity from it.
The rest of us are entitled only to cruelty, by their whim. This is how
the powerful have ever kept the powerless divided and in their place,
and enriched themselves in the process."
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