Introduction
Over the past few months, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been bussing immigrants from Texas to Washington D.C., and more recently, having them disembark in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence. Likewise, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has recently begun a similar practice of flying immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.
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Campus Conservative, Marisa Powers
DeSantis and Abbott’s griefs with the Biden administration are because of its failure to acknowledge the issue of security at the border. Since his administration took office, 4.9 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border. Part of their reasoning for sending the immigrants to these specific locations is the fact that they “did not consent to Biden’s open-borders agenda.” DeSantis’ communication director, Taryn Feske, was quoted saying, “States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies.”
Biden and his administration are condemning the acts of DeSantis and Abbott, calling them “un-American,” “reckless,” and an “illegal stunt.” However in 2021, there were night flights transporting illegal immigrants to states such as Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. One specific example of this was in October of 2021 when planes of underage migrants were flown into Westchester County in New York on charter planes from Texas. It can be seen as hypocritical now that Biden is calling DeSantis’ and Abbott’s actions “un-American” and “reckless,” when his administration was doing the same thing months ago.
I do not agree with anyone being used as a political prop that serves either side, and I think there are better ways to make a change. However, I do think that something needs to be done to call attention to the lack of security at our borders.
Campus Liberal, Tasha Khosla
While I understand that DeSantis and Abbott were purposely trying to provoke public response towards Biden’s border policy, it absolutely should not have happened. The actions taken were inappropriate and insensitive, and the immigration situation should not be reduced to a publicity stunt to criticize the Biden Administration.
A major issue as well is that their ways of bringing attention to this political issue only make matters worse. In DeSantis’ case, Martha’s Vineyard was not prepared for the arrival of these immigrants. According to CBS News, “Martha’s Vineyard does not have an immigration court where migrants can attend their asylum hearings or an immigration office where they can check-in to demonstrate their compliance with the terms of their release. The island also lacks large migrant services organizations that help newcomers integrate into local communities.” The point that DeSantis was attempting to make about the Biden Administration lacking resources is now lost as Massachusetts must instead scramble to rectify DeSantis’ egregious actions.
As for Abbott, the same applies. Transporting immigrants from Texas to New York City or Washington D.C. and then leaving them on the street is not going to solve the GOP’s grievances with Biden’s immigration policy. As President Biden condemned, “Instead of working with us on solutions. Republicans are playing politics with human beings using them as props. What they’re doing is simply wrong. It’s un-American. It’s reckless.”
While the Biden Administration needs to address the border situation, Abbott and DeSantis’ actions were not the way of doing so.
Conclusion
Both sides agree that the lack of border security and immigration resources needs to be addressed by the Biden Administration. Moreover, both sides agree that Abbott and DeSantis should not be using these immigrants as political props.
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