After several dozen migrants unexpectedly arrived Wednesday on Martha's Vineyard, the island's residents have mobilized with compassion and haste by supplying food, shelter, water and reassurance to the 50 or so undocumented immigrants from Venezuela.
"It is very touching to see people care about you when they don't even know you," one man said in Spanish Thursday, who left Venezuela two months ago and has hiked through nine countries.
"I feel like we got lucky," he said. "I feel we arrived blessed."
Where to Next?
Officials set up an emergency shelter at St. Andrew's Church in Edgartown following the migrants' arrival on Wednesday, but that is obviously just a temporary fix. So what happens next?
The first priority is figuring out where all of these migrants need to and want to go next.
The Baker-Polito Administration announced Friday its plans to set up a new temporary shelter along with humanitarian services at Joint Base Cape Cod, which is located in Bourne. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is working with state and local leaders to make sure there is access there to essentials, like food, shelter and other services for men, women and children.
The migrants took a ferry off the island Friday, arriving in Woods Hole before charter buses brought them to the base shortly before noon.
Baker also said Friday he plans to activate up to 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard as part of the relief response.
Shortly after the arrival of the migrants, Martha’s Vineyard residents joined with local and state officials to create temporary shelter and provide food and other necessities. But Baker's administration said the island is not equipped to provide ongoing food and shelter, so transportation was provided on Friday to bring the migrants to the new temporary shelter on Cape Cod.
Back on Martha’s Vineyard, lawyers said one of the complications in this whole ordeal is that the migrants all have paperwork listing homeless shelters as far away as Tacoma, Washington as their new U.S. addresses.
Potential Legal Challenges for DeSantis, Abbott
Meanwhile, the legal implications of this move by Governor Greg Abbott in Texas and Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida are now being weighed.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is urging the Department of Justice to open in investigation into possible criminal or civil violations of federal law – even possible kidnapping or human trafficking charges.
In Massachusetts, U.S. Attorney Rachel Rollins says she will be speaking with the DOJ, especially since this is not the only location where migrants have been transported.
State Sen. Julian Cyr, who’s been on the ground helping these migrants, says he supports that move.
"Whether or not this meets the legal threshold of human trafficking, this meets the moral threshold of human trafficking, and I think we really need to look into that," State Senator Julian Cyr said. "I hope the Justice Department is looking into this and I expect you’ll see here in Massachusetts our Attorney General taking a look at this as well.”
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday, Newsom said he was urging the Department of Justice "to open an investigation into possible criminal or civil violations of federal law."
Newsom pointed out that some of the migrants said they were brought "across state lines under false pretenses."
"Several of the individuals who were transported to Martha's Vineyard have alleged that a recruiter induced them to accept the offer of travel based on false representations that they would be transported to Boston and would receive expedited access to work authorization," he wrote. "The interstate travel at issue provides a basis for federal jurisdiction over this matter."
California was one of three states, alongside Massachusetts and New York, that DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske singled out as "sanctuary destinations" she claimed had "invited [the migrants] into our country."
The issue of whether Massachusetts can be described as a "sanctuary state," as Fenske and DeSantis have claimed, is a complicated one. While there are several policies in place to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants, legislation that would codify the state's sanctuary status has not passed.
In a tweet sharing his letter to Garland, Newsom called out DeSantis as well as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, saying what they're doing "isn't clever, it's cruel."
Abbott has been busing migrants to Washington, New York and Chicago. While some Massachusetts officials initially said the migrants who arrived in Martha's Vineyard were sent from Texas, Abbott's office said Thursday was not involved in the flights to the island.
