DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: Today we end up in Martha’s Vineyard

Most of you know me around Ellis and Dallas County.

During my off-and-on time here in the area while also traveling and seeing for myself what’s going on elsewhere on the globe, I have finally admitted that these days there is something very strange going on in my very own country.

Indeed, thanks to a raging pandemic that shut the world down, I have been able to take a more local approach to the problems we are facing here while considering the many similarities and differences in the over 100 countries I have visited.

And yes, I do believe the United States of America is the best country in the world.

Apparently, so do many other people streaming across the border down south.

But I’ll get to that in a moment.

For now, I want to make it clear this weekly editorial column is about conversations I am having with residents, Texans, people around the country and the world.

I have also had an up-close and personal look at how politics works (at least state-wide) by working at the state capitol.   

As a journalist, I have an opinion on all thing’s politics, but it might surprise you that I don’t believe I have a right to lean one way or the other. My job is to report facts without prejudice.

That said, this column is not about being a certain religion, a certain race, a certain sex, belonging to a certain political party or if a person has been vaxed, boosted or unvaxed.

I don’t care – we are all Americans. Let’s start out with all of us remembering that.

So that brings me to this week’s topic, the border crisis.

There has been a lot of talk about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his sending 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last week.

To me it seems like this mess has turned into a lot of name calling on a playground by a bunch of spoiled adults – and in this case I don’t mean DeSantis.

Hey people out there thinking you can get away with stuff – not really.

Situations that have been hidden for years are not so much anymore as it seems it is harder for politicians to hide or lie because there are too many cameras pointing directly at – well just about everyone – that Big Brother thing goes both ways.

So, when Florida’s governor, who is by now a household name, decided to fly the 50 migrants up to the tiny little island (and it is, I have been there), it meant that the good folks on Martha’s Vineyard have now become in some circle’s poster children for hypocrisy and embarrassment.

Well, that seems to be one take on it anyway.

The islanders apparently called their 50 uninvited guests a “humanitarian crisis” from what I’ve read.

Can someone define that for me because I don’t think 50 people coming off an airplane constitutes a humanitarian crisis? Just sayin’ especially in such a wealthy area.

I have seen humanitarian crisis points – and it is NOT Martha’s Vineyard.

I mean the islanders did learn a few words of Spanish. They were also very jovial in their waving goodbye as the National Guard whisked the entire lot away in less than 48 hours to Joint Base Cape Cod – that is some serious clout people.

And remember the whole sanctuary city/state thing; Florida is not, Texas is not, Massachusetts is not, but Boston is – I am not sure where that leaves Martha’s Vineyard since it is where many of the wealthy Bostonians have their weekend homes. Either way, the islanders didn’t get the arrival memo of their guests.

Okay, I get it, maybe you wouldn’t want to open up your home to strangers either, but some reports have said DeSantis is being accused of human trafficking and kidnapping these migrants who were delivered to Martha’s Vineyard.

Well, if he is, then the Biden Administration just might be in deep doodoo too – since it did the same thing a “few times” in 2021 (and perhaps more recently) according to a released FAA 2021 piece of information.

A few times – more like a LOT of few times.

In the case of the White House flights and busing, let’s break this down.

It appears that in the “dead of night” or maybe not the dead of night for everyone – I mean sometimes I am still up writing at 4 a.m. – but I digress – well, apparently FAA data indicates that at various times in 2021 in the late night/early morning hours, as many as 425,000 (out of the 2 million that have crossed the border since this most recent political maneuvering began) migrants were flown out of various Rio Grande airports to cities in the United States.

It was reported that in El Paso, which by the way is a democratic led city according to Fox News, there have been 2,365 migrants on 51 buses to New York City since August 23. It was also reported that the city signed a contract that was worth in the millions to keep the buses rolling.

I looked for more information about these night flights and found a New York Post article from April 2022 that said the White House was taking part in “after-dark charter flights of underage migrants” to New York and then boarding them on buses after they landed.

Is anyone asking where these underage migrants are being taken?

So, it’s okay to bus and fly people out of states that are not sanctuary states/cities or not – I’m still confused?

Playing alongside the Biden Administration and DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reportedly bused nearly 9,000 asylum seekers to New York City and Washington DC lately.

A statement from Abbott’s office said, “The busing mission is providing much-needed relief to our overwhelmed border communities. Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps left by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border.”

However, in a rebuttal to Abbott’s move (and maybe DeSantis’ move too), Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN that Abbott’s busing these migrants out of Texas is “throwing the federal system for processing migrants ‘out of whack’ since it is not being managed with federal authorities.”

Okay, so what does that mean?

Apparently, it means that governors being bombarded with thousands of migrants crossing the border are expected to sit back and smile while waiting for the federal government to do something.

Mayorkas doesn’t seem to like the fact that this whole thing is causing more work for the DHS.

Maybe someone should have thought of that before the influx of people who have now basically become pawns in a political game are being moved around like chess pieces – that’s just how I see it no matter what side of the aisle.

Abbott’s office recently noted to that the “Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Texas National Guard are continuing to work together to secure the border.”

Not a bad idea since I just read that Iran and Mexico are earmarked to begin to work together in what could be more trouble with terrorists coming into the county via Mexico alongside the migrants who are looking for help.

Reportedly, the U.S. Border Patrol has taken as many as 1,300 migrants a day into custody just this month alone.

Oh, and back in Martha’s Vineyard it has been jokingly said the islanders who have “long displayed signs welcoming immigrants” will surely take those signs down now.

US News reported that as opposed to what some reports have said, the residents did provide their uninvited guests meals, shelter, health care (I guess while making sure the National Guard was on its way).

Of course, there was the spin too – perhaps a rumor – the migrants who ended up in Massachusetts said they were tricked, huh?

DeSantis said (and this is true whether you agree or not) he was transporting “illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.” Florida earmarked $12 million to help get these folks to sanctuary states.

Then California Gov. Gavin Newsom (that state is a mess – I lived there 10 years) decided to open his mouth. Apparently, DeSantis and Newsom would not have been friends on the playground – Newsom said the U.S. Department of Justice needs to investigate if “transporting migrants across state lines broke the law.”

But then I am thinking back to the Biden Administration doing it too.

Maybe Newsom just needs to figure out why everyone is leaving his state and heading to Texas.

I also read that he is bandying around the words “kidnapping” and “civil rights conspiracy,” again, huh?

And my final question – NOW WHAT?

Rita Cook is a freelance journalist for The Ellis County Press. She can be reached at rcook13@earthlink.net.