For local and state officials on Martha’s Vineyard, the decision to send a group of roughly 50 Venezuelan migrants to the island was a “failed” political stunt orchestrated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to create chaos in a small community with under 20,000 year-round residents.
DeSantis claimed credit Wednesday for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, where local officials quickly put together a temporary shelter, medical services, and legal counsel. Supporters of the move have painted the island as a wealthy haven for Democrats, though locals say that is not the entire truth while decrying the use of migrants for political purposes.
“This is all part of a very cruel ruse that manipulated vulnerable people who are simply seeking a better life and choosing a location to get maximum attention I think in part try to embarrass and paint a non-border community as hypocrites,” said state Sen. Julian Cyr, a Democrat representing the Cape and Islands. “I think they failed.”
At an unrelated press conference Thursday, DeSantis said immigrants “are inclined to think Florida is a good place,” arguing “sanctuary states” are better equipped to support them. Gov. Charlie Baker has opposed making Massachusetts a “sanctuary state” and pushed for an end “to the national security crisis” at the border in a letter with 25 other governors.
“Our message to them is we are not a sanctuary state, and it’s better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction,” DeSantis said. “And yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures.”
While Martha’s Vineyard is home to wealthy families in the summer, the community has a thriving year-round population that has grown over the past decade, where the median household income is slightly below the state average, and multiple languages are spoken in area-high schools.
State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, whose district includes the island, said Martha’s Vineyard was chosen to create chaos. Both Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard “are incredibly diverse places,” he said.
“The school district on Martha’s Vineyard is over a third non-white. On Nantucket, it’s majority-minority. Both islands have experienced incredible growth,” he said. “A lot of that is predominantly due to immigration. And so these are already immigrant communities. They’re already incredibly welcoming.”
Cyr said the island “certainly has some notoriety” as a result of the people who vacation during the busy summer season or may own a second home there but the reality on the ground is slightly different.
“There’s more waiters and landscapers and construction workers and teachers and firefighters and working-class people who make a life on these islands than anyone else,” he said, though a housing crisis and high costs of living are making it difficult for people to afford to stay on the island.
It is not the first time federal politicians have floated Martha’s Vineyard as a port of entry for people who crossed into the United States unlawfully.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation in October 2021 that would require the Department of Homeland to send any person who “has illegally entered the United States in a covered Bord Patrol sector” to 12 new ports of entry, including Cambridge, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.
In a statement at the time, Cruz said the bill, which is pending in committee, would help “alleviate the massive overload at the southern border by establishing new ports of entry in Democrat-led communities such as North Hero, Vermont, where [U.S. Sen.] Bernie Sanders spends his summers, and Martha’s Vineyard, where Democrat elites host their cocktail parties.”
Cyr said there is a nuance to understanding the community on Martha’s Vineyard.
“We have working people who are struggling to make ends meet, almost exclusively driven by the cost of housing, there’s plenty of work. If anything, we have a workforce shortage because of the housing crisis,” he said. “Just because there is a tremendous amount of wealth that is present among our visitors doesn’t mean that is reflective in the year-round population.”
The population in Dukes County, which covers Martha’s Vineyard and several smaller islands to the northwest, grew by 24% from the 2010 to 2020 U.S. Census, according to data presented by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in early January 2022. Overall, the entire state saw a 7.4% population increase, and every county except Franklin and Berkshire Counties saw some growth.
It is not the first time the Cape and Islands region has seen an uptick in residents. According to commission data, Barnstable County grew by 53% and Dukes County by 46% in the 1970s, even as the rest of the state did not see a massive shift.
Even with the growth in the past 10 years, a housing crisis is very present in Dukes County — particularly on Martha’s Vineyard. The island’s housing stock grew by less than 2% between 2010 and 2020, even as the population increased by 25%, according to the commission.
For the first time in five decades, the housing stock also shifted to year-round occupancy, at 51%, according to the commission. Total housing units for Martha’s Vineyard grew from 16,973 to 17,312, data showed.
The median household income for Dukes County is $77,318, according to census data, compared to $84,385 statewide. U.S. Census data for Dukes County shows the population as 89% white, 5% Black, 3.8% Latinx, and 1.4% Asian.
Lisa Belcastro, the coordinator of the homeless shelter on Martha’s Vineyard who organized much of the initial response on the island, said the decision to send migrants there is part of a political game where human beings are being used as “pawns.”
“It’s a political game, and shame on everyone involved,” she said Thursday morning. “We have to stop the chess game right now … because they’re human beings, just like you, just like your spouses, and just like your kids, and they don’t deserve to be treated as they’re being treated.”
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