DeSantis, Migrants, and Gratuitous Cruelty

Buffalo is the city of “Good Neighbors.” It’s a sort of marketing tagline. Is Buffalo friendlier than its New York peer cities? Who knows – I doubt such a thing could be quantified. Ultimately, it makes us all feel better about ourselves. We’re not like the other people. We’re not like New York City. We’re more midwestern. We’re nice.

There are plenty of examples of good neighborliness (see, for instance, the outpouring of support for the West Side Bazaar, hit recently by a major fire.)

But there are a slew of examples of ugliness. Consider if you will this letter to the editor of the Buffalo News, penned by one Joseph Fahey of Williamsville.

The hypocrisy of the Democrats is unending. Fifteen thousand illegal aliens showed up in the small community of Del Rio, Texas, in one day, and we barely heard about it. Fifty willing undocumented immigrants are sent to the super-wealthy Martha’s Vineyard, and the elites declare it a humanitarian crisis.

Del Rio Texas is on the US-Mexico border. The Mexican city of Ciudad Acuna lies on the other side of the fence. The 15,000 immigrants Mr. Fahey mentions came mostly from Haiti in September 2021. In order to reach that spot, those brave people had to make their way across the sea to Mexico and then to the US border on a perilous journey. They come to the United States seeking refuge from a failed state, gang violence, and crushing poverty. They come here seeking the same opportunity that your ancestors sought when they came here, no matter when or from where.

Humanitarian crises such as the ones Mr. Fahey mentions in Del Rio are more than just an opportunity for men in Williamsville with Irish surnames to revel in their misfortune and to own the libs. These are human beings and they deserve to be treated with respect.

But what, Mr. Fahey, does a 2021 crisis of Haitian migrants in Texas have to do with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis? Why would Florida’s governor pay six figures of taxpayer money to fly a handful of Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. While I am old enough to remember when Republicans supported immigrants fleeing failed communist states, Mr. Fahey misstates the facts.

DeSantis retained the services of an unknown vendor to select refugees to fly to Martha’s Vineyard. Plying them with McDonalds coupons and having them sign a waiver written only in English, a woman known only as “Perla” arranged for their transportation. The migrants could not legally work – an idiotic policy that only worsens these refugees’ plight. At a time when there is a supposed labor shortage, certainly work could be found for migrants ready and willing to do work.

Mr. Fahey says the Venezuelan refugees whom DeSantis tricked were “willing”, but the facts say otherwise:

“I don’t like the way they treated us,” said Jose, who made the journey to the border with two stuffed animals given to him as a gift by his 5-year old son, whom he left behind with relatives. “We’re human beings.”

Most of the migrants who seek asylum at the Southern border are released pending a court date. Most of them already have friends or family in the US. The asylum seekers intend to move along to other spots throughout the US. Barring a fundamental change in immigration law and policy, I have no doubt that other states would cooperate with Texas and other border states to facilitate this transportation. Resettlement agencies exist throughout the US to do help new immigrants start their new lives. In Buffalo we have several of them.

But DeSantis is instead kicking off his Presidential campaign by being deliberately cruel to refugees from a communist state and dropping them off on an island off the mainland – not anywhere near where their people are. None of this was done out of compassion or empathy or any sort of earnest desire to help. It was done out of hatred.

What Mr. Fahey is too inarticulate to say is that he supports Republican governors cruelly worsening the suffering of migrants from Venezuela because it’s a good meme.

Mr. Fahey gleefully continues,

NBC News published a statement by a Vineyard resident who said, “Florida Gov. DeSantis sending asylum-seekers to Martha’s Vineyard is like ‘me taking my trash out and just driving to different areas where I live and just throwing my trash there.’” Other observers perversely compared sending these people to Martha’s Vineyard to the Holocaust.

Well, it is. DeSantis took people from Texas and spent Florida money to send them to a tony island off the coast of Massachusetts, under false pretenses. It was a form of human trafficking and accomplished no positive outcome.`

Because our system deems Martha’s Vineyard residents to be more important than regular Americans, the “crisis” was dealt with in one day. The Massachusetts National Guard was activated, and the migrants were removed to a nearby military base. I wonder what the Democrats’ reaction would be if Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott activated their National Guards and dumped these people off at a military base? I don’t really wonder.

Not sure how “our system” deems people on the Vineyard to be more important, but it is true that Martha’s Vineyard, an island of 15,000 residents, is ill-equipped to properly and adequately handle the resettlement of migrants flown from Texas as part of a meme. To their credit, the people on the Vineyard sprang to action and helped to feed, clothe, and house these migrants until such time as their onward travel could be arranged.

Mr. Fahey sees the quick action put in motion by Massachusetts’ Republican Governor, Charlie Baker to help and accommodate these refugees, whom DeSantis duped, as an indictment. Really, though, it reveals that treating immigrants as worthless cattle is a choice. Republican Governor DeSantis made that choice while Republican Governor Baker did not.

They were not “dumped … off at a military base.” They are not in custody and they have been offered shelter, food, clothing, and services as they plan their next steps with the help of resettlement agencies and immigration attorneys. They are getting the help they need and deserve, without any craven grandstanding Republican using them for a meme.

Unlike the Trump Administration’s behavior, the children were not separated from their parents.

I saw some people on Twitter allege that Martha’s Vineyard “deported” the refugees. One cannot “deport” someone from an island in Barnstable County, Massachusetts to mainland Barnstable County, Massachusetts.

I hope DeSantis and Abbott continue this practice. Perhaps the governors should send more undocumented immigrants to progressive communities in Western New York, such as the Elmwood Village, or tony East Aurora, where I’m sure the reaction would be the same.

Journey’s End, Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, and the International Institute are among the agencies in WNY tasked with helping immigrants start a new life in western New York. Erie County is especially welcoming of migrants, and large communities of people from places like Burma, Somalia, Ukraine, and Yemen have brightened our community.

Whether he realizes it or not, Mr. Fahey is, in effect, paraphrasing Heinrich von Treitschke and Der Sturmer. He sees immigrants as people to be foisted upon his political opponents. They are a scourge to be used primarily to wipe that shit-eating grin off those libs’ faces. The underlying attitude is that immigrants sind unser Unglück.

I wonder where Mr. Fahey lives, but I’m willing to bet that 14222 is more diverse than his zip code, and that the Elmwood Village doesn’t need lectures on inclusion or welcoming of immigrants from the likes of him.

To be fair, it was not very nice sending those people to a community inhabited by hypocritical, elitist snobs.

Perhaps Mr. Fahey should put himself in the shoes of these migrants fleeing poverty and violence and see them as fellow human beings rather than culture war ammunition.