In September 2022, the Republican Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, made headlines with his choice to involuntarily relocate Venezuelan and Colombian migrants by sending them hundreds of miles away from their arrival destination in Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in an apparent critique of President Biden’s immigration policies. While some may denounce DeSantis’ behavior as exceptional, our political system facilitates and indeed encourages upending people’s lives for political gain.
The fifty undocumented immigrants who were shipped off by DeSantis arrived in the United States to seek out better economic opportunities for themselves and their families in the supposed land of opportunity. These immigrants were even told they would receive jobs, food, and shelter upon their arrival. However, they were instead coerced into a one-way plane ticket to a destination with no guarantee of life essentials upon arrival, creating a humanitarian crisis in the sparsely populated Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. With the aid of Florida state funds and an airline charter company named Vertol Systems, the DeSantis government spent millions to manipulate dozens of vulnerable migrants into being pawns in a political chess game against Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
As a part of the Florida government’s political strategy to transport undocumented immigrants to progressive states, these migrants are being weaponized by the Republican party to shift responsibility onto Democratic governments that laud themselves as sanctuary states. The lack of forewarning to these progressive areas has caused compounding issues for both the migrants and the communities that are unprepared to support them. With scarce resources and limited shelter, many of the migrants who arrived in Martha’s Vineyard were transported to a military base in Cape Cod and elsewhere to receive necessary services and shelter for the time being. With many of these migrants having limited English language skills and little to no support networks or community, these undocumented immigrants were shipped across the country simply so Republican governments such as DeSantis’s could cynically make the statement that Democratic states should take sole responsibility for the undocumented migrants they claim to want to support.
We can denounce DeSantis for his actions, condemn him using taxpayer money to make a political statement against Biden and risk the lives of these migrants by sending them to ill prepared states upon landing. However, these actions are not out of the ordinary for GOP politicians. In fact, DeSantis is not the only Republican governor to have pulled this stunt to redirect undocumented migrants to Democratic majority states. In the same week as Gov. DeSantis, Texas Governor Greg Abbott bussed 75 to 100 migrants from Texas to Kamala Harris’s Washington D.C residence for a reported $12 million. These political ploys will likely not be the last either, as DeSantis’s administration has set aside $12 million as well to transport migrants from Florida across the country. In the last few days, $1 million was set aside by the Florida legislature to fly migrants to Illinois and Delaware, President Biden’s home state. However, it appears that, according to a recent report by the AP, flights to these two states have been mysteriously postponed for the time being.
While Republican politicians have resorted to upending the lives of migrants as an opportunity to score political points against the Democrats, the Democratic Party is not so immune from such political games. Despite promises to reverse the anti-immigrant policies of Donald Trump, such as the obligatory collaboration between local police and ICE, policies that criminalize migrants are still in effect across the country. A journalist from the Ventura County Star even reported that “under Biden, the federal government is still relying on local police partnerships as the main engine of the deportation system.” Both parties endorse playing a game that prioritizes politics over human life and that emphasizes the need to secure re-election in place of enacting policies that promote the well-being of their constituents.
Unfortunately, politicians continue to be rewarded for how well they can play this game of political deceit. While many politicians disguise themselves as populists attuned to the interest of their constituencies, more times than not, they are revealed to be from wealthy and well-connected backgrounds. Ron DeSantis is just one of many politicians who attempts to appeal to the average American by claiming to be from “blue-collar roots” despite attending Yale and Harvard and working as a Federal Prosecutor. At a time of heightened political polarization, voters are left with only an illusion of choice—to vote for a party that claims to be in favor of progressive policies yet does very little to dismantle the polities that continue oppress millions of Americans or to support a party that poses as a voice for disaffected Americans by directing blame at protected classes for the ills of the country.
While it is hard to imagine, we should strive to realize a different way of practicing politics where policymakers are true representatives of their communities rather than hired political operatives. In essence, we need to make politics more local. Rather than choosing the best pieces on a nationwide political gameboard, we would be better off to elect those who have demonstrated their dedication in bringing meaningful change to their communities. This is of course easier said than done but focusing on local change is a tangible first step in combating the all-consuming partisan warfare encouraged by our country’s political system.
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