Police on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket are anticipating the potential arrival of a migrant flight sent from another state, reportedly scheduled to land on Tuesday.
Nantucket Police issued an alert that a flight is incoming this week with “many similarities to the flight and incident that occurred on Martha’s Vineyard,” which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had authorized, according to the Boston Herald.
It has not been confirmed whether the passengers en route to Nantucket are illegal immigrants. The charter company reported that it is a business flight for a group out of Chicago. The Nantucket flight is reportedly operated by the same private air company that transported migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, according to the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror.
Nantucket Police Central Dispatch received a call from the Nantucket Memorial Airport Operations on Friday that a flight was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. “The purpose of the call was to inform the Nantucket Police Department that the reported scheduled flight had many similarities to the flight and incident that occurred on Martha’s Vineyard,” Nantucket Police said in a statement.
The migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard were approved as part of a budget by the Florida state legislature this year with members of both parties voting in favor. The provision appropriated funds to cover the cost of moving migrants out of the state to “sanctuary” locations.
Unlike that affluent enclave, which appeared to be overwhelmed by the influx of 48 illegal immigrants, who stayed for less 24 hours, Nantucket is reportedly making the proper preparations in advance, the police said. After local residents and officials distributed supplies and gave overnight accommodations, the migrants who stopped in Martha’s Vineyard were relocated to Joint Base Cape Cod. The temporary shelter operation there reportedly ended this weekend. Migrants are going to be moved to other housing locations, the publication said.
“In the event there is an arrival of a plane carrying migrants, the Nantucket Police Department and many other Town departments have a detailed plan to manage such a situation,” police said.
The migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard caused outrage among progressive media outlets and politicians, who called it an inhumane “stunt” that made political pawns out of vulnerable asylum-seekers. But there’s no sign of inter-state migrant relocations stopping anytime soon. On Thursday, several buses carrying illegal immigrants arrived in New York City and Washington, D.C., including one bus that dropped its passengers off outside Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence.