Local Officials Wanted Martha’s Vineyard To Be A ‘Haven’ For Illegals, Until Migrants Actually Arrived

In response to Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision to ship 50 illegal immigrants by plane to the wealthy island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Duke County officials labeled the migrants’ arrival a “humanitarian crisis” — directly contradicting their claim of wanting to make Martha’s Vineyard a “haven” for illegal aliens just less than a year ago.

Last year, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, was pushing a bill that would have sent those illegally crossing the southern border to Democrat strongholds like Martha’s Vineyard. In response, Keith Chatinover, a Democrat Duke County commissioner, told MVTimes in October 2021, “I would love Martha’s Vineyard to become a haven for new immigrants to this country, but Senator Cruz has no idea what he’s talking about regarding a ‘border crisis.’”

Fast forward to yesterday, and the “Visit Martha’s Vineyard” Twitter page posted a press release with the caption, “To our Island community, here is an update on [the] current humanitarian crisis on Martha’s Vineyard….we thank people for their continued help.” Cruz wasted no time highlighting this blatant change of tune from Chatinover’s statement made less than a year ago.

Cruz explained he was “confused” why Martha’s Vineyard officials used “crisis” language to describe the “haven” for illegal immigrants that Chatinover said he would “love” to create. The Texas senator continued highlighting left-wing hypocrisy on illegal immigration and the border crisis by tweeting, “If 50 constitutes a humanitarian crisis in Martha’s Vineyard, what the h-ll is 4.2 MILLION?” As of last month, 4.2 million foreigners had crossed the border illegally since Biden took office.

Some Martha’s Vineyard residents are not too keen on the idea of sharing their island with migrants. Local homeless coordinator Lisa Belcastro insisted, “We don’t have the services to take care of 50 immigrants, and we certainly don’t have housing.” Because of the affluent island’s lack of resources, she claimed, they will eventually have to go “somewhere else.” Despite constantly preaching “inclusivity” and “diversity,” liberals don’t appear to want to diversify their wealthy communities with poor foreigners.

Leftists are happy to virtue signal and say they want to provide for each illegal alien who crosses the border. But when it comes time to follow through and settle migrants into their wealthy and exclusive communities, their warm welcomes are nowhere to be found.

Sophia is an intern at The Federalist and a student at Le Moyne College. She majors in English and intends to pursue a career in journalism.

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