MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2022) Kirill Krasilnikov - US Republican governors' strategy of sending migrants to MOSCOW artha's Vineyard is an effective political stunt as it exposes the Democrats' weakness on the issue ahead of the midterms, but it could backfire in the long run, experts told Sputnik.
Earlier in the month, Florida flew in approximately 50 migrants who had illegally crossed the US-Mexico border to Martha's Vineyard, a Massachusetts island where former President Barack Obama has a mansion. The state of Texas, meanwhile, sent busloads of migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris' home near the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said during a recent press conference that he had hired a third-party contractor to divert any undocumented migrants that may have been Florida-bound. The migrants that arrived at Martha's Vineyard had reportedly been promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia, or Boston.
The move by DeSantis and his fellow Republican, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, was condemned by the White House: "it's really just disrespectful to humanity. It is it doesn't afford them any dignity, " Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in her September 15 press briefing, calling it "just cruel."
The initiative was also met with opprobrium by immigration advocates and human rights activists. The League of United Latin American Citizens told Sputnik earlier in September that the migrants were lured by "deceitful tactics," noting that Martha's Vineyard lacked the necessary infrastructure to accommodate newcomers which can be found in the Texas cities of El Paso or San Antonio.
While activists are slamming the governors for using migrants as "political props," some think that the initiative has its merits, politics-wise, as it showcases the ongoing crisis on the border that is taking place under the Joe Biden administration while also creating additional difficulties for the Democrats, who are often accused of deliberately keeping the border open, knowing that the consequences will be mostly borne by Republican controlled-states.
"The decision of Republican governors to send illegal immigrants to Northern Democratic strongholds was a work of strategic genius. These Republicans, like DeSantis and Abbott, are inflicting a problem created by affluent Democratic elites on those who are directly responsible for them and who should be made to pay the price of their irresponsible border policy," Paul Gottfried, the editor-in-chief of "Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture" and Raffensperger professor of humanities emeritus at Elizabethtown College, said.
He drew attention to the fact that the Democrats favor the policy of so-called sanctuary cities, that limit their immigration enforcement cooperation with the Federal government, saying that "they (the Democrats) have been delighted with open borders, providing the illegals and the drugs and crime that they bring are limited to Southern Republican states."
"I hope the illegals swamp Martha's Vineyard and turn it into the Northern equivalent of El Paso. Of course, this strategy could backfire if pursued too long, particularly since our media operate as the voice of the Democratic Party's left wing," Gottfried concluded.
A similar sentiment was expressed by Robert Weissberg, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
"From the Republican perspective, this is brilliant politics. Endless tv coverage to expose Democratic hypocrisy. Giving them a taste of their own medicine, and everybody understands," Weissberg said.
At the same time, the expert stated, Martha's Vineyard residents are happy to employ Hispanic migrants as menial workers.
"The problem would be solved if each of the new arrivals got jobs as nannies, gardeners and delivery people. This is why the rich love immigration � cheap, dutiful labor. But, residents of Martha's Vineyard will not openly admit this desire, especially their willingness to pay them off the books without taxes," Weissberg explained.
Meanwhile, Keith Preston, an anarchist theoretician and analyst, described what Abbot and DeSantis did as a "political stunt" done for optics, which does nothing to address the issue of illegal immigration.
"It will be a popular move with committed GOP voters and it will be unpopular with those who wouldn't vote Republican anyway. It's about turning out the Republican base to vote in the mid-terms," Preston suggested.
When asked if the Republicans could use this method to punish Democrats in the future by overloading health and housing infrastructure with new arrivals, the expert responded that while it was possible, he did not know if enough migrants were being sent to Democratic-controlled jurisdictions to make a practical difference.
