Photo: John Moore / Getty Images
WASHINGTON – United States Senator and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Congress, Bob Menendez, this Friday asked the president Joe Biden to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) at undocumented immigrants who have been moved between states by Republican governors.
“President Biden should take this moment to remind the country what American democracy stands for, he should welcome these refugees and those from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who have been bused to other states and allow them to seek temporary protection,” the Democrat pointed out in a statement.
This, he added, was “the right thing for the Ukrainians who could not return home” and “it is the right now.” The Biden administration granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Ukrainian nationals in April. TPS protects from deportation and gives work authorization to migrants who are on US soil.
Last Wednesday, fifty immigrants, most of them Venezuelans, arrived in two planes to the exclusive island of Martha’s Vineyard, a place Vacation packages for Presidents Obama and Clinton, sent by the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, in protest of what, in his opinion, the Biden administration’s inaction in making the border with Mexico secure.
On Thursday morning, two buses full of migrants arrived in the US capital, Washington, in front of the residence of the vice president, Kamala Harris, chartered by the governor of Texas, also Republican Greg Abbott.
These are two of the latest events in a campaign that has been taking place in recent months for which the Republican governors have been sending on buses and planes hundreds s of people who have crossed the border with Mexico to cities governed by Democrats.
“Using migrants at the moment when they are most desperate , more vulnerable, with the sole purpose of fanning the flames of xenophobia and white nationalism to score political points, reflects a callousness and cruelty only matched during the darkest moments of our history”, added Menéndez.
Several of the immigrants who arrived on the luxurious island of Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday were transported in the last few hours to the Cape Cod military base.
The Dukes County Emergency Management Association reported this Friday in a statement that in the last few hours an emergency program has been activated to support immigrants who have wanted to move to the base.
As explained by the governor of M Assachusetts, Republican Charlie Baker, Military Base Cape Cod (JBCC) is a frequently used emergency shelter facility in Barnstable County, and its existing infrastructure “provides safe temporary housing appropriate to the needs of families and individuals.”
In addition, the facility can provide a dedicated space for access to legal services and other essential services, such as basic medical care .
This base has historically housed and cared for displaced persons, including Louisianans fleeing the impact of Hurricane Katrina, and has been a center doctor during the covid pandemic.
The event has generated strong controversy and Joe Biden himself described it on Thursday as a “reckless” strategy that uses immigrants “as accessories”.
At the daily press conference at Casa B Lanca, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre accused Democratic governors of using immigrants “as political pawns” and treating them as “objects in a cruel and premeditated political stunt.”