Florida immigrant advocates say they鈥檙e 鈥渙utraged鈥� by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis鈥� move on Wednesday to fly undocumented immigrants to Massachusetts 鈥� and Venezuelan community leaders are expressing special anger.
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DeSantis, without prior warning, sent two planes carrying some 50 undocumented migrants to Martha鈥檚 Vineyard. It鈥檚 part of a program to relocate migrants to Democrat-led states and cities 鈥� to protest what Republicans call President Biden鈥檚 lax immigration enforcement.
Most of the migrants flown to Massachusetts are Venezuelan. That's prompted a strong rebuke from Venezuelan community leaders and immigrant advocates in South Florida.
"It's just of DeSantis' cruel political stunt show 鈥� using human beings," Adelys Ferro, a Democrat who heads the nonprofit Venezuelan-American Caucus, told SA国际传谋 before a press conference in Doral Thursday morning that featured several Venezuelan-Americans and immigration activists.
"He's using Venezuelans to galvanize his extremist base and to gain points for his run for the presidential elections."
Ferro added it's "hypocritical" of GOP politicians to curry votes in the Venezuelan exile community by condemning the socialist dictatorship in Venezuela that so many thousands of Venezuelan refugees are fleeing, "only to turn around and then show, like this, that they really don't want Venezuelans here."
Venezuelan-American Maria Corina Vegas of the American Business Immigration Coaltion said it was "shameless" of DeSantis and Republicans "to traumatize Venezuelan migrant families instead of acknowledging that they make Florida's economy stronger."
Other Republican-led states like Texas have recently sent undocumented migrants to what they call migrant 鈥渟anctuary cities鈥� like New York and Washington D.C.
Last month Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nu帽ez sparked controversy when she told a Miami Spanish-language radio show that DeSantis planned to send even Cuban "illegals" out of Florida to Biden's home state of Delaware. Afterward, DeSantis said he was putting the migrant eviction program on hold.
But on Wednesday he decided to move ahead. Speaking in Niceville, Florida, on Thursday, DeSantis argued states like Texas and Florida are just making places like New York and Massachusetts share responsibility for caring for the wave of migrants crossing the U.S. border.
鈥淭he 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鈥檙e so upset that this is happening," DeSantis said.
"And it just shows you, y鈥檏now, their virtue-signaling is a fraud.鈥�
Migrants who flew to Martha鈥檚 Vineyard told NPR they crossed into Texas and were flown from San Antonio to Florida.
Sarang Sekhavet of the Massachusetts Immigration Reform Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) told SA国际传谋 some said they were told they were being taken to get jobs. "I'd say tricked into believing they were being flown to Massachusetts to be given jobs is a better way to put it," Sekhavet said.
The migrants, who include children, are being temporarily sheltered in a Martha's Vineyard church. Sekhavet said the largely wealthy community there is donating money, food, clothing and even COVID-19 tests. But it's not clear where the migrants will eventually be housed long-term.
