Media: Migrants Bused To Joint Base Cape Cod

Boston Globe photo

In an emotional farewell Friday, the roughly 50 Venezuelan migrants flown unannounced to Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday in what critics derided as a cruel political stunt by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis left the island bound for temporary housing on Cape Cod.

The Boston Globe reports that just before 10 a.m., one large bus and two smaller ones from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional Transit Authority pulled in front of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church to a crowd of families waiting in the driveway with backpacks and suitcases.

The teary-eyed migrants hugged volunteers, took selfies, and gave the church, which had doubled as an emergency shelter for them, a round of applause before embarking on the next stretch of their journey to Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne, which Governor Charlie Baker’s office said Friday was being made available as temporary shelter for the migrants.

For one 27-year-old, the trip to Massachusetts was long.

“From Venezuela. From Colombia to the jungle. Panama. Costa Rica. Nicaragua, Honduras. Guatemala, Mexico. All the way to the United States. And well, we got here. I was fooled,” said the man, who did not provide his name, in Spanish. “We got here without any comfort, I’m telling you without. What we saw was a political gesture, it is true that it is absolutely brutal for us, because we are trying to get out of it.”

Baker’s office announced Friday that the Republican governor is prepared to mobilize up to 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard as part of the relief effort.

Buses have arrived in Edgartown to transport migrants from St. Andrew’s Parish House.

There is one big bus and two shorter buses to transport folks off the island. People with bags are taking selfies and hugging volunteers goodbye pic.twitter.com/wuauiZM4Y3

— Samantha J. Gross (@samanthajgross) September 16, 2022

The Baker administration said individuals and families will be housed in dormitory-style spaces on the base, which is designated as an emergency shelter in Barnstable County, with separate spaces accommodating solo travelers. Families will not be separated.

“We are grateful to the providers, volunteers and local officials that stepped up on Martha’s Vineyard over the past few days to provide immediate services to these individuals,” Baker said in the statement. “Our administration has been working across state government to develop a plan to ensure these individuals will have access to the services they need going forward, and Joint Base Cape Cod is well equipped to serve these needs.”