The Venezuelans Gov. DeSantis dropped in Martha’s Vineyard last fall as a political stunt are thriving.
“I did not even know where Martha’s Vineyard was. And now I feel welcomed by everybody here. I’m working, making friends and this is home for me now.”https://t.co/eeCaBxd8Q4
— Hannah Dreier (@hannahdreier) June 28, 2023
Only a handful of yet-to-be-certified refugees, but still a win for these lucky few. From the NYTimes, “How Migrants Flown to Martha’s Vineyard Came to Call It Home” [gift link]:
… When Ms. Cauro fled Venezuela last summer, she never imagined that one day she would be working and living on a wealthy island south of Cape Cod, surrounded by boats and mansions of the kind she had seen only in the movies.
It has been nine months since the government of Florida, under the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, chartered two flights from Texas that picked up Ms. Cauro and 48 other newly arrived migrants and dropped them off on Martha’s Vineyard, a liberal enclave that until then had little firsthand experience with the surge in migration on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The political move — repeated this month, when Florida officials arranged two more flights of migrants from Texas, this time bound for California — was an attempt to force Democratic leaders many miles away to deal with a surge in migration that has affected states along the border. The trips left many of the Venezuelans confused and alarmed. Some were told they were headed for Boston or Seattle, where there would be plentiful jobs, assistance and housing.
But neither was the destination; it was Martha’s Vineyard, and it was the end of the busy summer season when vacationers begin retreating home to offices and schools. There were no jobs and no places for them to stay. Volunteers put the new arrivals up at a local church and arranged for transportation.
Within days, most of the migrants were gone, headed for other parts of Massachusetts and places like New York, Washington and Michigan — places better equipped than a small island to settle people who had arrived with little or nothing of their own.
As it turned out, though, not all of them left.
Ms. Cauro is one of at least four migrants who have quietly stayed behind on the island, forming bonds with a community that opened what doors it could. Ms. Cauro, 25, is working as a landscaper. Her brother, Daniel, 29, and her cousin, Eliud Aguilar, 28, found jobs in painting and roofing.
They first stayed in the homes of Martha’s Vineyard residents who invited them in, and then began earning enough money for a house of their own, with the four of them currently chipping in $1,000 a month each for a two-bedroom house. They got bicycles to ride around town…
Many of the 49 migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard are still struggling. Some have not yet obtained work permits, and many are still living in shelters, unable to afford permanent housing.
One of them, a 42-year-old man named Wilson, who had fled Venezuela after deserting an armed group there, is living in a shelter in a Boston suburb. He was hoping to open a restaurant or a remodeling business, but for now is working odd jobs and “doing whatever I can,” he said.
“We were 49 migrants, and we have 49 different stories,” he said. “I want to reach the American dream like everyone else.”…
Life in “La Isla,” as the migrants call it, feels a lot like the new life they had imagined. But getting there was a tremendous challenge. Ms. Cauro and her family members, facing an oppressive government and economic collapse in Venezuela, had set out for the United States a month before reaching the border.
Her brother, Daniel, had left behind a wife and two children, Daniela, 8, and Reynaldo, 2. They traversed the Darien Gap, a treacherous strip of jungle that connects South and Central America. In Mexico, the group jumped on La Bestia, a network of cargo trains headed north where many migrants have lost their limbs and even their lives…
Alison Rose
Using these people like political footballs to OWN TEH LIBS!!! is so fucking repugnant. DeSantis really wanted to make it crystal clear that he doesn’t view anyone different from himself as human.
Suzanne
This is the kind of thing that I read and I think a real, genuine, un-ironic, totally wholesome America, fuck yeah.
JPL
It’s a nice story, and you know who will never be accepted among the island residents?
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: Yes, it does exist. (Mostly in blue states.)
zhena gogolia
@JPL: Alan Dershowitz?
different-church-lady
@JPL: Hitler?
Jeffro
Great story!
Btw a story like this one makes Dan Balz’s sad/weird/you be the judge attempt here all the more sad, and weird: What do Ron DeSantis and Barack Obama have in common?
(worth it just to read the WaPo reader replies, LOL)
Dan, think about taking a year or two or all of them off, please.
In other words: Clinton was and trump is a frontrunner; Obama was and DeSantis is trying to overtake the frontrunner…BUT EVERYTHING ELSE, DOWN TO A MOLECULAR LEVEL, IS DIFFERENT.
Dan Balz, I say this with all sincerity: either fire your editor if you have one, or if you won’t, HIRE ONE.
schrodingers_cat
@Alison Rose: Immigrants have been a political football since the inception of this country. This is the latest iteration of a long tradition.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
I think they would take Hitler over Alan Dershowitz.
NotMax
@Baud
“Why did you choose Hitler?’
“In the first place, he’s dead.”
//
JPL
@Baud: They would even welcome Dershowitz before DeSantis. I imagine that would make Casey sad.
lollipopguild
@Baud: Maybe Hitler could get a job painting houses.(I kid!)
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: My first political meeting after becoming a citizen was a candidate forum in an 300 year old church. The forum was for an open seat in the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth. Small New England towns are the best!
dexwood
@zhena gogolia: Thanks for the chuckle.
Chief Oshkosh
It would be a very, very good thing of the governors of Texas and Florida were to take a fateful trip together, one that starts from a tropic port, aboard a tiny ship, for a three hour tour…a three hour tour.
Anoniminous
@schrodingers_cat:
Immigrants have been political football in the US since the wave of Irish in 1848
Cameron
@Alison Rose: If he thinks anything he’s doing makes him look human, he’s seriously deluded.
schrodingers_cat
@Anoniminous: Oh even in colonial times. I remember reading Ben Franklin castigating the swarthy (his word) Germans in Pennsylvania who drank too much.
6th anniversary of my naturalization is approaching.
rikyrah
JoeyB ain’t new to this.
He true to this.👊🏾👊🏾
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8eHN7Ar/
Another Scott
@Anoniminous: Um, farther back than that.
MyJewishLearning.com:
It’s a very long and sordid history on this continent.
Cheers,
Scott.
gene108
@Alison Rose:
Could just be an attempt at owning the libs or could evolve into a more coordinated effort to ban legal immigration. Asylum seekers allowed into this country are here legally.
Gov. Abbott, Gov. FeSantis, Fox News, other right wing media, and other Republicans are not making the distinction they are here legally. They followed the law.
They treat these legal immigrants as a horde of invading criminals trying to destroy America, just like they treated illegal immigrants.
Somewhere, in some right wing think tank, sitting at a desk is a conniving little operative, hoping to be the next Atephen Miller or Chris Rufo, indexing various polls and surveys trying to make the case Republicans should go all in on banning immigration of any kind from non-European nations. Hoping to get the institutional support Rufo has gotten.
MomSense
TV series recommendation: Seaside Hotel on PBS. It’s a Danish series and it’s fantastic. My mom and I are binge watching and enjoying every moment.
Cameron
@Jeffro: In fairness, if you drank a fifth of tequila and stood on your head in a dark alley, you might well realize the same vision as Dan Balz.
NotMax
@MomSense
Watched the first season when it was on Netflix some years back, and concur.
MomSense
@NotMax:
There are 9 seasons! I’m so hooked.
rikyrah
Woman comes into a restaurant and just gives a woman her baby🥺🥺
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8eHLwsT/
gene108
@Suzanne:
It’s reassuring to know there are so many in good people in this country.
Gin & Tonic
There have been sizable communities of color – both Black and Native – on the Vineyard for probably longer than there have been rich white people.
Anoniminous
@Another Scott:
That gets us into another deeply embedded US tradition: racism.
gene108
@rikyrah:
I’m just gobsmacked by how much the woman who was handed the baby knew about babies, and how calm she stayed.
Frankensteinbeck
@gene108:
I’m going with “Just a side story of the longstanding Republican desire to stop brown people from immigrating.”
The Lodger
@Chief Oshkosh: They are both Gilligan, trying to be the Skipper. Neither one will ever be the Professor.
NotMax
MomSense
Know the feeling. Totally stoked about the fourth season of Captain Marleau coming to MHz Choice on July 11th.
JPL
@MomSense: Is it on passport?
MomSense
@JPL:
Yes, it’s available on passport. Not sure for how long.
MomSense
@NotMax:
I will have to check that out.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@NotMax: Thank you for recommending MHz. I got hooked up on it and have enjoyed watching so many mysteries from different countries.
@MomSense: Is it a mystery, drama or period piece?
MomSense
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
The premise is a seaside hotel in Denmark in the 1920s and the characters are the guests, innkeepers and hotel staff.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@MomSense: I love that time period. It’s such a transitional time between the sentiments of the Victorians and more modern culture.
Btw, for anyone interested or wanting to know more about art, the French series The Art of Crime is fun to watch. It centers around France’s art theft division and the art historian they bring in often has conversations with the dead artists as she works out questions. For someone with limited art knowledge, I’ve found it fascinating to learn more about the backgrounds of various paintings and artists (and bits of trivia, too)>
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@NotMax: He still Lives on the
HistoryHitler channelDavid 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Why is immigration a political football and not a political baseball?
The NFL didn’t even exist in the 1700 hundreds.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: Seen any Hindi movies off late?
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I haven’t but would welcome some recommendations. Did I tell you about the dance group The Quick Style? They are an international dance group and recently went on a tour of India. Some Indian pop stars joined them. They incorporate a lot of Indian dance in their hip hop choreography. I think you might enjoy them.
Ken
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Since you made me look: Football is attested in the 1700s. Obviously this was not any of the modern sports that go by that name.
schrodingers_cat
@MomSense: What are you in a mood for?
NotMax
@schrodingers_cat
Any initial thoughts about this?
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
I could go for a light romance with some dancing.
Not sure if I told you that my friend passed away and her husband sold the inn. He also went heavy for Modi which was upsetting because she didn’t like him at all.