A reporter said Friday that migrants are “thanking” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for relocating them to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
Telemundo senior Washington correspondent Cristina Londono traveled to Martha’s Vineyard and personally spoke to a handful of the 50 migrants relocated to the upper class town in an effort to send illegal immigrants to Democrat-led cities. She told MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart that the migrants are “thanking” DeSantis, despite claims by several activists that the migrants were human trafficked.
“They were promised they would get jobs, they were gonna get housing on the plane that brought ’em here to Martha’s Vineyard. So, there’s activists here, Jose, that are saying that these people were victims of human trafficking. They want an investigation from the Justice Department onto what Governor DeSantis is doing, what Governor Greg Abbott is doing because they’re saying that these people are being abused and used to bring a border crisis deeper into the country,” Londono said.
“Now I can tell you they are not angry at Ron DeSantis, they are actually thanking him for having brought them to Martha’s Vineyard where they were very well received,” she continued. “But other people, well, they’re saying they’re being used as political pawns. They don’t resent it for now and they know they’re the lucky ones.”
DeSantis said at a Friday press conference that the migrants voluntarily boarded the two planes en route to Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday evening. He said his handling of the migrant crisis is “humane,” then criticized President Joe Biden for allegedly encouraging the surge in migration. (RELATED: Liberals Melt Down Over DeSantis Flying Migrants To Martha’s Vineyard)
“These are voluntary transportations that they’re signing up for, but they’re given a good ride, they’re given everything and that’s a humane thing to do,” DeSantis said Friday. “What’s not humane is what [President Joe] Biden is doing, he’s given a false promise, the border’s open, luring people to come here for political purposes and then basically cutting these people loose and leaving them high and dry.”
The White House and other liberal figures have accused DeSantis of “inhumane” authoritarianism and of participating in a “political pawn.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has previously claimed that DeSantis and Abbott’s bussing and relocating of migrants is “cruel” and a “political stunt.”
“Two Republican governors reportedly lured 100 asylum seekers, including children, onto planes and buses with false premises and then abandoned them on the side of a busy road thousands of miles away with nothing, with nothing but Ziplock bags of their belongings in hand. These were children. They were moms. They were fleeing communism,” Jean-Pierre said Friday.
Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has recently witnessed migrants bussed to his city from Texas, condemned the move by DeSantis.
“We’re not going to be like those municipalities and states where we fly people to Martha’s Vineyard, where we put people on buses and have them fail to get the basic items they need,” he said. “And anyone who states that this administration does not have a handle on this crisis, they must have been sleeping under a rock,” he said.
Filmmaker Ken Burns even compared the relocation of migrants to the Holocaust on CNN Thursday after co-directing a documentary on the U.S.’ role in the Holocaust.