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Drawing on the White House party line, Politico Playbook PM headlined last night’s edition “GOP govs’ migrant stunts return to center stage.” The reference was of course to the flight of illegal aliens from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard (thanks, Governor DeSantis) and the busing of illegal aliens from Texas to the Vice President’s DC residence at the Naval Observatory (thanks, Governor Abbott).
The governors seek to draw attention to the opening of our southern border by the Biden administration. It is the kind of political protest (or whatever) that one might think only ’60’s radicals turned Democrat could manage. Indeed, it is straight out of the Rules For Radicals playbook. The media response puts an exclamation points to its bite and brilliance.
Let it all hang out. Make the man live with it, baby!
I understand that the illegal aliens voluntarily undertook the trips they were offered. This morning Reuters strives to make the case that they were misled. So far as we know, not a single one was harmed in the process.
How brilliant are these protests? CNN (perfect!) brought in Ken Burns (perfect!) to liken the DeSantis variant to, well, you know what. “This is coming straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” Burns…”explained.”
“What we find in our all films is that the themes that we engage in the past are present today,” he concluded. “And so when you look at the story that we’re telling of the U.S. and the Holocaust, you understand that the time to save a democracy is before it’s lost. We promise you.” I’m sure our own Jewish Community Relations Council and all the like organizations will get right on it.
To answer my own question, I have a two-part answer. A protest or demonstration is a “stunt” when it is devastatingly effective and undertaken by Republicans or conservatives.
The strategy of Greg Abbott and others to send illegal aliens to sanctuary cities around the country was a stroke of genius. Not that it was original: for at least the last five or six years, a friend has been emailing me to the effect that illegals should be sent to Marin County, Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco mansion, and, above all, Martha’s Vineyard. That, he said, would bring the open border problem to a screeching halt.
And it may. Ron DeSantis’s master stroke of sending two planeloads of aliens to Martha’s Vineyard has made liberal heads explode. The irony is evident to everyone. These places are “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens, but if they actually see a few of them they panic. Their yards boast “All Are Welcome Here” signs, but it turns out that some are more welcome than others.
Rasmussen finds that most people approve of Governor Abbott’s shipping illegals to sanctuary cities like Chicago and Washington, D.C., by 52% to 36%. Those 36% are diehard Democrats who think it is fine for Texas to try to deal with one million aliens, but an outrage if a liberal city has to take on a few hundred.
Unlike most Americans, liberals don’t appreciate the irony. Their reaction has been priceless. The White House’s Press Airhead Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, thinks what Abbott and DeSantis are doing is terrible. She also thinks Ted Cruz is the Governor of Texas:
By the way, if KJP thinks it is “shameful” to use migrants as political pawns, one can only imagine how outraged she would have been if she had known that the Democrats were using families ostensibly separated at the border as political pawns. Too bad she missed that one.
Of all the crazed liberal reactions, this is one of the nuttiest. Sending some illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard–I wish I could afford to live there–is kinda like the Holocaust:
As for what is going on at the Vineyard, America’s paper of record comes through as usual:
For a non-satirical update on events, the New York Post headlines: “Martha’s Vineyard in chaos after DeSantis ships migrants to liberal enclave.”
The liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard was thrown into chaos by the arrival of two planeloads of migrants sent to the Massachusetts island by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to local reports.
Members of the West Tisbury Select Board were told about the unexpected development during a Wednesday night meeting at which Town Administrator Jennifer Rand said she’d been receiving “furious texts” from residents, the MV Times reported.
I’ll bet they were furious! Not just anyone can live on Martha’s Vineyard. Maybe the Vineyard folks can ship the unwanted illegal aliens to a more downscale location, like the Hamptons. Or else the illegal immigrants, of whom there are only around 50, could all stay at Barack Obama’s $12 million estate. There is plenty of room there, and I understand his mansion has 10 bathrooms. That would be more than enough. But don’t hold your breath.
In all seriousness, if there is anything that could motivate Democrats to accept United States sovereignty, this is probably it.
UPDATE: I forgot to add that Governor Abbott also bused around 100 illegals to Kamala Harris’s Washington, D.C., residence, the Naval Observatory. This was in response to Harris’s absurd claim that the southern border is “secure.” No way, say the illegals themselves: the border is “open!” Let’s have more of this, until the Democrats say “Uncle.”
UPDATE: Will the Obamas come through for their illegal friends? Some are doubtful:
President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas look up during a virtual bilateral meeting with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez from the White House in Washington, on March 1, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday issued its final order rescinding the Trump-era “public charge” rule that limited the benefits for immigrants who obtained public assistance benefits like Medicaid and food stamps.
The Biden administration reportedly stopped enforcing the rule within months after President Joe Biden took office.
“This action ensures fair and humane treatment of legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members,” said DHS Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “Consistent with America’s bedrock values, we will not penalize individuals for choosing to access the health benefits and other supplemental government services available to them.”
The new rule is slated to go into effect on Dec. 23.
“Public charge” rules have been a concept in immigration law for decades, referring to someone who is considered likely to rely on welfare programs as a condition to deny someone permanent residency.
Under the Biden administration’s rule, green card applicants are only considered a public charge if “they are likely at any time to become primarily dependent on the government” for assistance. Homeland Security will not consider public charge determinations for family members of the applicant who are getting government assistance.
Immigrants can receive benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, as well as receive benefits provided by the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid, housing benefits, benefits related to immunizations or testing for communicable diseases, or any other supplemental or special-purpose benefits, according to DHS.
But the new rule will factor in a “noncitizen’s prior or current receipt of Supplemental Security Income (SSI); cash assistance for income maintenance under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); State, Tribal, territorial, or local cash benefit programs for income maintenance (often called ‘General Assistance’); or long-term institutionalization at government expense” in considering whether the individual is a public charge, according to the DHS.
More Details
About 1.5 million households with at least one non-citizen member get food stamps, and another 1 million receive Medicaid benefits, according to the rule published Thursday.
Pedestrians crossing from Mexico into the United States at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry wait in line in San Diego, Calif., in a file photo. (By Denis Poroy/AP)
The Trump administration rule had defined a public charge as an immigrant who gets one or more designated public benefits for more than 12 months and within a 36-month period. Officials in the Trump White House said that their rule protected U.S. taxpayers from undue burdens caused by foreign nationals who couldn’t financially support themselves.
“The principle driving it is an old American value, and that’s self-sufficiency,” Ken Cuccinelli, the former acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said in a 2019 interview with Fox News about the Trump rule. “No one has a right to become an American who isn’t born here as an American,” he told NPR around the same time.
In June of this year, the Supreme Court dismissed a bid by Republican state officials to take over the legal defense of the public charge rule.
It came after an appeal by 13 Republican state attorneys general led by Arizona’s Mark Brnovich who sought to defend the rule in court after the Biden administration refused to do so. The state attorneys general had hoped to ask lower courts to throw out decisions that sided with various challengers to the rule, including a number of Democratic-led states.
Rumor has it the Biden administration is on the verge of using Amtrak to transport illegal migrants from parts of the U.S. Mexican border.
According to 19 House Republicans, President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security is planning on using hard-earned taxpayer money to fund the transportation of illegal aliens from the border to cross into the country.
The House Transportation Committee blames Biden's urgent need to end Title 42 for the massive spike of illegals crossing the border, inciting GOP members to heighten the need to expose the president's plans.
In a letter to Amtrak officials, Republicans cautioned that Biden may use their transportation services for processing if immigration checkpoints are inundated with new arrivals, furthering the crisis at the border.
"We are concerned about the impact that a significantly greater border surge could cause to your services and the potential use of Amtrak in the Administration's response to its self-created border crisis," the letter reads.
"Such a situation would cause disruptions for Amtrak customers as well as interrupt freight traffic that could further exacerbate the supply chain crisis…would also constitute an unconscionable use of significant amounts of taxpayer funds and resources to aid in the vast movement of illegal migrants into American communities," the letter continued.
The Republicans said they are "deeply concerned" that Amtrak's resources will be used to move undocumented people.
"We are deeply concerned that Amtrak's resources – especially those supporting the Sunset Limited route – will be used to transport these undocumented persons. Such a situation would cause disruptions for Amtrak customers as well as interrupt freight traffic that could further exacerbate the supply chain crisis. Such actions would also constitute an unconscionable use of significant amounts of taxpayer funds and resources to aid in the vast movement of illegal migrants into American communities," the GOP members' letter said.
The Customs Border and Protection (CBP) announced earlier this week that nearly 200,000 illegal migrants have entered the U.S. in July alone, taking the total so far this fiscal year to 1.946 million encounters.
Yesterday the New York Times attacked Republican governors for sending a handful of the illegal immigrants who have invaded their states to other jurisdictions. The Times headline was “G.O.P. Governors Cause Havoc by Busing Migrants to East Coast.”
No. The havoc was caused by the Biden administration luring illegals to the border and inviting them to cross without consequences. A tiny fraction of the havoc the Democratic Party has inflicted on red and purple states is now coming home to roost in blue states. That is a good thing.
A political tactic by the governors of Texas and Arizona…
Erasing the border and inviting mass illegal immigration was a political tactic by the Democratic Party. Democrats evidently think they should be immune to the consequences of their own feckless actions.
…to offload the problems caused by record levels of migration at the border…
This is almost beyond belief. The problems at the border have been created deliberately by the Biden administration. They are not being “offloaded” by border states, which have no special obligation to bear them.
…is beginning to hit home in Washington, as hundreds of undocumented migrants arriving on the governors’ free bus rides each week increasingly tax the capital’s ability to provide emergency food and housing.
Yes, and what do you think the Biden administration’s pro-illegal immigration policies have done to tax the resources of border states like Texas and Arizona?
The Times’s pained reaction to having to share a tiny percentage of the border states’ pain–New York has gotten a handful of bussed illegals, like Washington, D.C.–validates the wisdom of Governors Abbott and Ducey’s policies. If blue voters experience a small taste of the evils caused by illegal immigration, maybe we can finally muster the collective will to enforce our country’s immigration laws.
GOLIAD, Texas—Sheriffs in Texas are experiencing the impact of the border crisis in their counties every day—whether it’s armed cartel operatives smuggling illegal immigrants, vehicle pursuits resulting in crashes and deaths, or drug overdose deaths from fentanyl brought across the southern border.
In Goliad, Sheriff Roy Boyd sits 200 miles from the Texas–Mexico border, between McAllen and Houston—a major transport corridor of illegal immigrants and illicit goods.
As a 29-year law enforcement veteran in the region, Boyd said he’s never seen a border crisis so bad or border-related crime so egregious.
“There’s no end to it,” he told The Epoch Times on June 23. He monitors 16 cartel-operated sites in his county that are currently dormant, but have been used to stash illegal immigrants on their way to Houston. Currently it’s mostly carloads of illegal immigrants being smuggled straight through his county to the city.
“It’s a movement of individuals from third world countries, all over the place, into our country. But the farther you get into it, the more you realize it’s all done by design—and it’s at the design of the federal government.
“We’re in a transformation of America from a free Republic to moving to something that’s more of a Marxist state.”
Goliad County Sheriff Roy Boyd checks a site used by cartels to smuggle illegal immigrants through Goliad County, Texas, on Nov. 23, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, border authorities have apprehended more than 3.2 million illegal border crossers, according to Customs and Border Protection data. An additional 800,000 or so have been detected, but evaded capture.
When asked how allowing millions of people from more than 160 countries through the southern border results in the transformation to communism, Boyd harkened back to the 1960’s and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty.”
“LBJ sold the war on poverty to the Democratic National Party … and the DNC’s response was, ‘Why would we give those people something for nothing?'” Boyd said.
LBJ responded by saying he’d have them voting Democratic for 200 years, Boyd said, paraphrasing an infamous quote that has been widely attributed to the former president.
“This is nothing but a replication of the soft enslavement of people through entitlement,” Boyd said. “Because if you understand psychology and you look at the history of things, this is how it functions. Once it starts, it’s hard to stop.”
Trevor Loudon, a communism expert and contributor to The Epoch Times, said in a previous interview that the communists’ main enemy is the United States.
“And if you can’t bring it down through nuclear weapons, you bring it down through illegal immigration, which is maybe just as effective in the long run,” Loudon said.
“This is an orchestrated, communist assault on America, to destroy America’s borders, to create confusion in America, to overwhelm the system politically.”
Loudon said an additional 15 million to 25 million Democratic voters would ensure perpetual Democrat control of government.
“You will have a one-party state in America. And that is the plan. That is why they are doing this,” he said.
“This is Marxist. This is Leninist. And this goes back to American politicians cooperating with hostile foreign powers in the destruction of America. And their No. 1 weapon is illegal immigration and overwhelming the border.”
in Goliad County, Texas, on Nov. 24, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Traditionally, noncitizens have voted about 80 percent Democratic and 20 percent Republican, according to a 2014 study by Old Dominion University.
“We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections,” the study concluded.
“Non-citizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress.”
Now, the number of non-Hispanic illegal aliens entering the United States is increasing at the same time that Hispanics are skewing more Republican, as evidenced by Rep. Mayra Flores’s recent win in south Texas.
It’s illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, however, for years there’s been a push for municipal elections to accept noncitizen voters, including visa holders.
Loudon said Eliseo Medina, a labor union activist and former immigration consultant to President Barack Obama, is a main driver of the illegal immigration movement.
In 2009, Medina spoke at the America’s Future Now progressives’ conference in Washington.
“[If] we reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters,” Medina said. “Can you imagine … [even] if we get 8 million new voters that care about our issue and will be voting—we will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”
Fourteen municipalities currently allow noncitizens to vote, including 11 in Maryland, two in Vermont, and one in San Francisco.
A recent court ruling quashed a New York City law that would have allowed at least 800,000 noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams allowed the measure to become law on Jan. 9.
“I believe that New Yorkers should have a say in their government, which is why I have and will continue to support this important legislation,” Adams said in a statement at the time. “I believe allowing the legislation to be enacted is by far the best choice, and look forward to bringing millions more into the democratic process.”
Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and former member of the Federal Election Commission, said allowing noncitizens to vote “cheapens and diminishes” the concept of citizenship.
“The whole point of the open borders crowd is to do two things: one, extinguish the line between legal and illegal aliens in this country. And second, to frankly get rid of the whole concept of citizenship,” Spakovsky said in a previous interview.
Biden has said he wants a pathway to citizenship for all illegal immigrants in the United States.
A sign depicts the Goliad County line in Goliad, Texas, on Nov. 23, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
Boyd said the Biden administration is working hard to purge conservative and constitutional thinkers at the federal level and replace them with people with a socialist mindset.
“But always remember, as Stalin said, the aim of socialism is communism,” Boyd said.
He said his focus remains in Goliad to protect his county and make it an unwelcoming place for criminals. The sheriffs in the region try to work together to “help each other to fight this massive wave of criminal activity,” he said.
“We don’t deal with immigration, we’re not tasked with it, we’re not authorized with it, we don’t want anything to do with it.
“But we’re fighting all the felonies that are being brought to our doorstep as a result of the national policy that’s causing this problem. And to be quite honest with you, I have no faith in the federal government.”
“My faith is in our Lord and Savior. One day we’re going to meet the end and we’re going to have to answer for what it is we’ve done, and so I want to have a good answer when I get there.”
