The latest Republican thing is to bus individuals and asylum-seeking families to areas including Washington, D.C., and New York City. The GOP governors of Arizona and Texas aren’t doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, they’re doing it to troll Democratic officials. That they would use these already vulnerable individuals as human props is abhorrent, and they’ve continued to get away with it.
In Florida, the Republican lieutenant governor has been facing bipartisan blowback for her proposal to send migrants to President Joe Biden’s home state. During a radio interview last week, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said she supported sending newly arrived Cuban migrants to Delaware, an idea that drew a firestorm because, well, many Cubans live in Florida, for one. Nuñez was forced to clarify her remarks on Monday, but her alternative idea wasn’t any better, or more decent.
RELATED STORY: Greg Abbott's stunt of busing asylum-seekers from Texas to D.C. has cost $1.6 million and counting
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“When clarifying her controversial comments Monday, Nuñez drew a distinction between being a ‘political’ refugee and immigrants who are coming into the country for ‘economic’ reasons,” Miami Herald reported. Nuñez claimed in a statement that “[e]ntering the country illegally and fleeing a dictatorship to seek asylum are two different things, and misrepresenting that is offensive,” NBC Miami reported.
First of all, asylum is legal immigration. But she’s also saying she didn’t mean to trash Cuban asylum-seekers, she meant to trash those other kind of asylum-seekers. They’re the ones who deserve mistreatment and derision, not Cuban migrants, who have historically been treated much better than other migrants. ”For decades, Cubans received special immigration treatment in the U.S. through the so-called ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ policy,” Miami Herald reported. Cubans have also been more reliable Republican voters. Nuñez herself is Cuban-American. (Note: Nuñez made the remarks “clarifying” her statement on Americano Media, a conservative outlet targeting Spanish speakers. Michael Caputo, a serial liar with the previous administration, is one of its strategists.)
“I have known Lieutenant Governor Nuñez for decades. This is not the Jeanette Nuñez I used to know,” former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz said in the report. Diaz, who is also Cuban-American, said Nuñez “should know better” than to embrace Gov. Ron DeSantis’ increasingly anti-immigrant policies. “Or have you become so driven by power now that you have left your heart, your compassion and your principles at the door?” Well, yes.
Annette Taddeo, the Florida state senator seeking to unseat Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar, also condemned the remarks during a press conference in front of the historic Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. “DeSantis and the Republican Party profess to stand with those fleeing communism and socialism,” she said according to Miami Herald. “Yet they continuously turn their backs on those fleeing total repression in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.” Of course, DeSantis is perfectly happy implementing his own U.S.-branded authoritarianism. His base loves it so much, he’s hoping it sails him right to the White House.
Often lost in these political games are the stories of the migrants themselves, all of whom are deserving of safety and dignity. Eduardo Garcia told the Associated Press that he limped more than 1,000 miles after breaking his ankle on a trail. He’s one of the migrants who has been bused to New York City. “He told no one about his fractured limb until he arrived in New York, where he got medical attention, a cast and crutches.” Venezuelan migrant Kelin Enriquez and her children were bused from D.C. to New York. She told the Associated Press that “no one leaves their land because they want to.”
Further complicating things for both migrants and service providers like Catholic Charities is that unknown Texas officials have “listed the office as the migrants’ address, which perplexed church officials at the New York Diocese,” the Associated Press said. “The diocese has now received more than 1,300 court notices on behalf of migrants.” If migrants do not make their court dates, they can automatically lose their case and face deportation.
“I think we were maybe caught off guard, a little bit disappointed by the governments in Texas and Arizona just putting individuals on buses to D.C. without any plan at the other end,” Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of migrant services for Catholic Charities, told the Associated Press. “Many are fleeing persecution and other very severe circumstances,” New York City Immigration Commissioner Manuel Castro told the Associated Press. “They’re confused. And we want to make sure that we support them as much as possible and make sure that they’re not being used as political pawns.”
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