Massachusetts Governor Activates National Guard as Martha’s Vineyard Migrants Removed from Island

Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker said Friday he is deploying up to 125 National Guard members in response to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sending a group of just 50 illegal immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

“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,” the governor said.

The national guardsmen will meet the immigrants at Joint Base Cape Cod on the mainland. Buses retrieved the group of Venezuelans from St. Andrews church in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard Friday morning, roughly 24 hours after they arrived on the island from San Antonio, Texas.

Baker, a moderate Republican, said transporting the migrants to Cape Cod was necessary because “the island communities are not equipped to provide sustainable accommodation, and state officials developed a plan to deliver a comprehensive humanitarian response.”

On Thursday, the Chamber of Commerce of Martha’s Vineyard said the island was facing a “humanitarian crisis.”

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

DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske said the migrant flights were “part of the state’s relocation program to transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

“States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies,” Fenske said.

Massachusetts state Representative Dylan Fernandes, whose district includes part of Martha’s Vineyard, called DeSantis’s actions “f***ing depraved.”

“The Governor of one of the biggest states in the nation has been spending time hatching a secret plot to round up & ship people-children, families-lying to them about where theyre going just to gain cheap political points on Tucker Calrson [sic] and MAGA twitter. It’s f***ing depraved,” Fernandes wrote on Twitter.

House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee tweeted Friday: “If there is a humanitarian crisis in Martha’s Vineyard, wouldn’t it stand to reason there is a drastically more significant humanitarian crisis at the Southwest border?”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has sent busloads of illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C., and New York City in recent months to draw attention to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Biden blasted Republicans in a speech he delivered at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala on Thursday.

“Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props,” he said. “What they’re doing is simply wrong, it’s un-American, it’s reckless.”