A new bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, seeks to establish new ports of entry in “Democrat-led communities” such as Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket to process immigrants coming from the country’s southern border.
The “Stop the SURGE Act” would relocate immigrants from South Texas to 13 new ports of entry: Martha’s Vineyard; Nantucket; Block Island, R.I.; Newport, R.I.; Greenwich, Conn.; Cambridge.; Governors Island, N.Y.; Scarsdale, N.Y.; Rehoboth Beach, Del.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Yountville, Calif.; St. Helena, Calif.; and North Hero, Vt.
According to a news release on Cruz’s website Tuesday, the bill is proposed to alleviate pressure on border patrol and local law enforcement at the Texas southern border due to the “massive influx of illegal immigrants.”
“For the past 10 months, President Biden and his administration have willingly surrendered the United States’ southern border to dangerous criminal cartels, with no thought given to the South Texas border communities like McAllen and Del Rio, which are running low on resources from dealing with this massive influx of illegal immigrants,” Cruz said in the news release. “That’s why today I am introducing this crucial legislation to alleviate the massive overload at the southern border by establishing new ports of entry in Democrat-led communities such as North Hero, Vermont, where Bernie Sanders spends his summers, and Martha’s Vineyard, where Democrat elites host their cocktail parties.”
U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-MA 9th District, criticized the proposed legislation. “Why is it that whenever Ted Cruz is facing a crisis in Texas, his mind seems to wander to vacation destinations? First it was Cancun, now it’s Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard,” Keating told The Times. “Last week he voted to default on our nation’s debt, now he’s wasting resources on lame political stunts.”
Similarly, state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Falmouth, lambasted the legislation. “Senator Cruz is an attention-seeking tool who knowingly lies about conspiracy theories to undermine American democracy. He’s an embarrassment to the country, and not worth commenting on,” Fernandes told The Times in a text message.
County commissioner Keith Chatinover also voiced opposition to Cruz in a text message to The Times. “I would love Martha’s Vineyard to become a haven for new immigrants to this country, but Senator Cruz has no idea what he’s talking about regarding a ‘border crisis,’” Chatinover told The Times in a text message. “Immigrants make our country stronger (as evidenced by immigration from Brazil and other countries to the Vineyard), and he is trying to whip up racial anxieties for political gain, which is essentially the entire GOP platform anyhow.”
Joe Gervais, president of Tashmoo Insurance and the moderator of the Martha’s Vineyard Republican Club Facebook page, told The Times he did not have time to read Cruz’s bill, but said immigration has already had an effect on Martha’s Vineyard.
“We have seen a large influx of immigrants from Brazil entering our country from Mexico. This influx has added to the difficulty in finding low-end rental units. Attendance at Brazilian churches is up due to the influx, too,” Gervais wrote. “My insurance agency has sold many new policies to recent arrivals. Businesses which utilize newly arrived and unskilled labor (e.g., landscaping and house cleaning) now have many more workers to choose from than previous years. Established Vineyard residents who are from our sister community of Mantenópolis, Brazil, are seeing people they are used to seeing in Mantenópolis now living here.”
Jesse Brown, a Republican running against Keating for the state’s 9th District, criticized Keating’s work on immigration: “If Congressman Bill Keating had ever visited the border like I did, he would understand that illegal immigration is a crisis for all of America, not just Southern border states. But instead of working to secure the border and protect Americans, Keating supported amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. Legislation like this wouldn’t be necessary to get his attention if he understood the severity of the humanitarian crisis at our southern border.”
Does anyone have any stall space available to rent in a barn on The Vineyard. Ted Cruz, a complete jackass, will be needing a place to call his own when and if his bill somehow gets passed and he makes his way to the island to check on things.
That’s an insult to donkeys everywhere!
Exactly. It’s been 30 years since I lived on the Vineyard and housing was nothing short of difficult off-season and even worse during tourist seasons. How the heck does that buffoon from Texas, think that either island has the ability to house the influx of immigrants? This Is just another example of how off-based he and his cronies are.
All of our elected officials rose to the occasion on this one, but Rep. Dylan nailed it, calling Sen. Cruz “an attention-seeking tool who knowingly lies about conspiracy theories to undermine American democracy. He’s an embarrassment to the country, and not worth commenting on.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. If Ted Cruz did his ranting on Martha’s Vineyard, he’d probably be advised to seek counseling.
Gregory you beat me to it; whenever I think about Ted Cruz, the word ‘jackass’ springs immediately to mind.
A much stronger word comes to mind when considering Ted Cruz. It is probably unprintable in this journal
On the Vineyard, I would take the undocumented over a racist jackass like Ted Cruz in a heartbeat.
What a horrifying waste of time.
Let’s Go Brandon!
Isn’t it sad that you Trumpers now have to resort to coded language reveal yourself.
Never change.
Aron –We call a term like that a ” dog whistle” for a reason…
Only dogs can hear it .
They have been using it for a while.
Not surprisingly when I googled “origin of the term dog whistle”
This was the first thing to come up.
https:/c/www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/21/racist-roots-dog-whistle/
Wow How could this person actually be in the United States Senate totally clueless to reality.
Umm, have you seen some of the other clueless individuals in both houses? And on both sides of the aisle?
If only fine people like Jim would step into a leadership role.
Then we could blame him for our nations failures.
Knowing how to make friends and influencing people is a necessary skill politicians should have. Ted Cruz hasn’t learned how to be a decent human let alone making friends. He has earned the title of being the most reviled among his colleague senators.
He’s kinda late, they’re already here….
I fully support Sen. Cruz’s bill. Poorly informed islanders think this is some kind of “refugee crisis”. These are not refugees. This is a well financed operation bringing children who have been sexually abused, MS 13 members, drug dealers, families looking to get ahead on welfare programs financed by all Americans, wealthy or not, and confirmed terrorists. We wring our hands on how to deal with a dozen or so homeless people each winter. Imagine if the planes starting bringing in a thousand or two homeless, unvaccinated, poorly educated immigrants of all backgrounds and colors to our island. Imagine people of unknown origin walking across our yards knocking on our doors in the middle of the night yet a police response is 45 minutes away. This is real folks and few of us would submit to it.
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Totally agree. Why the democrats want to dump all those people described above by JOHN Axel in most Republic led states, while living in beautiful secluded places like Martha`s Vineyard, come on beautiful people what`s wrong with all those wonderful people living in streets lined with tents, why bother if they live largely by the tax payersSam Castro money whether rich or poor ?. Come democrats you guys should be more compassionate !!!!!
um, did either of you actually read the article first? or even the headline before you commented? This is Republican, saying hes “dumping” humans in Democratic states…..and yet your comments…..This is political theater
I totally agree with you Sam and John.
We are totally surrounded here on MV that is why my profile says it all!
**I am just glad I am 70 years old, in my sunset years, just marking time and staying behind the wire**.
I firmly believe what Ronald Regan said in his `January 5, 1967: Inaugural Address` and I think this is the time he was talking about!
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
― Ronald Reagan
The unvaccinated, poorly educated, home-grown white, racist, anti Semitic terrorists are the immediate danger to the island, the Constitution, and our way of life. Cruz is a desperate and pathetic person.
Also, the Aquinnah police chief did exactly what you’re afraid of— and the police drove him home. Why are Trump sycophants so afraid of what drunk, stupid, mooching Islanders do every day here, and place those behaviors on immigrants?
John– there is no evidence to back up any of your claims, as usual.
Get your head out of the NPR, MSNBC reporting and learn the facts. Everything I said is verifiable.
John– without boring everyone with facts—-
Let me just ask you about ” confirmed terrorists”
Could you show us some FACTUAL , VERIFIABLE evidence that “confirmed terrorists” have been coming across the southern U.S border?
That might include names of at least 2 ” confirmed terrorists”, what they did, where they did the terrorist activities and when they were convicted in what U.S. court.
Most statements such as yours have a tiny grain of truth associated with the origin of the lie.
Like this
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-border-security/u-s-arrested-two-yemenis-on-terror-watchlist-who-tried-to-cross-border-from-mexico-idUSKBN2BS1XO
I think even you would agree that being “watched” is different than being “confirmed” as to having done something.
Given that you are not only literate, but articulate as well, I can assume you have graduated high school.
Given that, you should know how to write a paper that has a reasonable chance of persuading a reasonable person that you are actually accurate with an allegation.
Good luck —-
Tell me you’re afraid of brown people without telling me you’re afraid of brown people.
I’d rather imagine a world in which, someday, all the racist small-minded xenophobic bigots have died off and the rest of us can live together with mutual respect and compassion.
The SSA brings them every Spring through out the Summer and into the fall, What’s a few more
I am a seasonal resident of MV and an off season resident of the once great State of Texas. I have known many jackasses (the four-legged kind) in my time and most are not at all like “Fled Ted”. They are generally quite endearing animals with a keen sense of themselves and the world they live in. And they make great companions and protectors if you have the space for them and a large shovel for the cleanup.
And then there is Ted. No keen sense of himself, of others, or the world we all live in. And ask his dogs if he makes a good companion. And ask the women of Texas if he is a protector of their basic rights.
And have a large shovel handy – there will be a lot to cleanup. Please ignore our village idiot as best you can.
Donkeys are wonderful, caring friends with some of the most beautiful eyes of any animal in the world.
Ted Cruz is a waste of space.
Any Hattian that swims from Haiti to Martha’s Vineyard will be welcome in my house .
Maybe Ted doesn’t know that this is an island surrounded by water–“big water” at that. Nantucket and Block Island also.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
It’s comically rare for a liberal who proclaims “I’d open my home to an immigrant” to actually do so. Virtue-signaling of this sort is rarely followed by action.
Just so you know, Alex, When I first started going to Jamaica in the early 2000’s I made friends with a number of Jamaicans. There were 2 guys in particular who seemed motivated and wanted to come to America.
Because of the restrictions the Bush admin put on immigration from Ja. it was almost impossible for them to get here. — not to mention that they were working for $1 an hour and it cost $130 to even apply for a visa.
I funded them, covered their expenses to get here, lent them money (which I got back). They have both stayed at my house. One of them is currently living on M.V , is an American citizen, and purchased a home here less than 2 years ago.
The other lives in Baltimore and will be eligible for citizenship next year. Neither has ever collected any government money.
Your knee jerk reaction that “liberals” do this or that is pretty telling..
Republicans actually do try to make it as difficult as possible for any immigrant to get here, and then “virtue signal” by lying about what liberals do. It’s typical– After defending an average of nearly 25 verifiable lies per day from the past administration, you all get your panties all twisted up if Biden misspeaks once.
And for you to tell us what liberals will or won’t do for immigrants is comical.
I applaud 👏 your efforts and good will towards others. Thanks for being fair minded and thoughtful!
Your welcome– that’s what liberals do..
Thank you for being a wonderful person!
Aron, I could take that as a compliment or as sarcasm– Either way, helping a few people in need does not make me a wonderful person– Just read the comments here– even most of the liberals think I am an occasional jack ass. 🙂
It’s comically rare for a Conservative to proclaim “I’d open my home to an immigrant” .
How about vacationing Veterans and Fireman?
Can’t wait to see how Andy spins this one as a non partisan reasonable idea.
Whenever the Republicans are backed into a corner, they drag out their greatest hits of xenophobia, “voter fraud”, Hillary’s emails and Hunter Biden’s laptop to distract from their own pitiful behavior. They have absolutely nothing else to offer but political stunts. They are void of any substance or ideas for improving the lives of Americans. Ted Cruz wasn’t even born in this country and he has the nerve to whine about immigrants. He’s a colossal buffoon, a perfect representation of his party.
Cruz knows it wont pass but it is a satiric gesture for the liberals on the East Coast who ignore the influx of illegals at our southern border or even want open borders. Bring them to your house he says. Lighten up. Cruz graduated Summa from Princeton and Magna from Harvard Law School and in 1992 was named the top debator in the entire US. He has served as Atty General in Texas and was the Editor of the Harvard Law Review. Alan Dershowitz who none of you like of course called him ”off the charts brilliant” Whatever Cruz is he certainly is not a jackass.
I knew you would come through, Andy
HEE-Hawwww
no such thing as “open borders” thats a political talking point. No one ignores anything illegal, humans arent illegal. despite where he graduated college hes still an out of touch baffoon.
Our borders are currently open to anyone from any country in the world? Do you live under a rock and not see this invasion? The ignorance is really frightening. Is your house and backyard open to having these people stay with you, for free, forever. Stand up for what you believe in and publish your address for them.
John– let me expand my story about the Jamaicans I helped–
It took a combined 7 interviews with immigration (at $130 a pop ) over 2 years and 4 years respectively, as well as a letter from the office of senator Ted Kennedy to get 2 fine people into this country.
I am still working on another –A sister of one of the people I spoke of. That has been ongoing for nearly 12 years.. Perhaps when she graduates from nursing school next year we will try again.
I bring this up to counter your notion that we have open borders.
I am looking forward to a borderless world.
Only them can we all be free.
Freedom of association.
Freedom of movement.
Have you really seen how truly awful immigrants can be?
When did your people immigrate?
Or are you of indigenous stock?
They are the nicest people.
No human is ‘illegal.’
Cruz is a smart guy, but also a jackass. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Jackasses go to a Cancun when it gets cold.
I want open borders.
Worldwide.
A free people moving freely.
When I first saw this story somewhere on the Web this morning I thought I had stumbled upon a satirical website. Honestly, that’s how it came across. And then I remembered that it’s not even close to April Fool’s Day! I guess I was wrong.
Last time I looked, Ted Cruz’s family recently immigrated to this country. Is that why they sell mirrors?
Let’s drop Ted Cruz in Haiti with his family!! Tomorrow!!
I think he likes Cancun..
Or Latinos not born in Canada
Buddy, he would be better down the throat of the Volcano in La Palma!
I guess the Republicans have nothiing to offer except obstruction and introducing ridiculous legislation. Vote them out!
Jim– you got that right. They are so busy trying to pass fantasy laws about things that don’t exist, they take the focus off of their incompetence and outright hatred for anyone not waving an American flag and wearing a maga hat.
But it’s been going on for years.
Remember the many republican towns and counties that rushed to pass laws banning the implementation of Sharia law ?
That was all based on the big lie that Obama was a Muslim and was going to impose it.
In 2015 59% of them’s idjits thought so.
I wonder how many do now… ?
Perhaps, John, Alex and Andy could give us some insight..
This may shock you, but I’m not a Republican. The republican party has been hijacked by fools and lunatics. Obviously, this is a bit of political theatrics with no chance of passing, but it does strike a chord with those who notice a trend by liberal elitists to lecture and moralize about issues that do not affect them directly. Ted Cruz does make a point that chaos on the border is a problem thst is not impacting elitists who seclude themselves in enclaves and make grandiose statements about “opening our hearts“ when they themselves are not coming within 500 mile radius of those they are demanding others help. This kind of foolishness is going to hand the White House back to the wacko crowd in 2024.
.
Jim, You and yours already voted them out now look where our country is headed!!!!
How would you feel if the present Pres checked out & your present VP stepped in?
Then, something happens to her ~ Who would be third in command? OMG!
BTW, to be honest with y’all in case you might be curious, when I got home from Vietnam (USMC) I was so sick of politicians that I did not vote until I got married at age `35` (I came home from VN at age 20) and registered up as a Republican simply because I sided more with their beliefs and also because the Dems started the damn war with the LIE about the `Gulf of Tonkin` incident and Nixon a Republican stopped the war. Thank GOD.
After Obama was re-elected for a second term I `Immediately` went to town hall and said “I want to change to be unenrolled”. They said, “You mean to be a Independent”?
I said No, unenrolled ~ “I want to be one step above a illegal alien”. It was done!
Now I only vote in local elections as I know that my vote never counts in presidential elections in this state and island so now my main objective is to “Drain the Swamp” in my Town and our County.
“Semper Fi”
Aside from the baiting across one side of the aisle to the other, there is a real crisis along our southern border that no one seems to be able to repair.
Contrary to what one ill-intentioned commenter said, the vast majority of those fleeing central America, etc. are poor folks seeking a decent life in the mythical America that welcomes the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.
Neither the punitive, inhumane Trump approach, nor the well-intentioned but seemingly hapless approach of President Biden has brought order or a reduction in numbers of people flocking to our Mexican border, so what is the solution?
I sure don’t know, and you’ll of course note that Sen. Cruz has never had an inkling about what to do beside grandstanding and playing politics.
When we are “haves” and so many of our southern neighbors are “have-nots”, isn’t this influx to be expected?
Until both parties stop blaming each other, and instead, sit down and come up with practical ways of addressing the problem, the mess is only going to deepen.
Name me one country on earth that you can enter undocumented? Other than the U.S. and not be arrested and deported.
John you clearly fear people of color and have no idea what you’re talking about!
I will double you.
Mexico and Canada.
John- If you arrive at the u.s border undocumented and ask for asylum, you are detained, interrogated, vetted, tested for diseases, and vaccinated if you request it. You are then, as per U.S law entitled to a hearing to decide if you can stay.
As for your question– how about nearly every country in the world that refugees can reach.
Do you really not know how many refugees from the middle east are currently in Europe who arrived undocumented and were processed and not arrested and deported ?
The problem at the border is due to the world wide wealth disparity.
People always follow the money.
Demoine–What John said has nothing to do with color. Your statement is called deflection and is constantly used to avoid a real dialogue. Albert– Mexico has semi-open boarders. They will immediately deport those they dislike (particularly Cubans) and they have no fear about an invasion on their northern boarder. People don’t get into Canada without documentation. Don–You are a person of great character and humanity. I just wish the elites were cut from your cloth. If they were, this issue would not exist. They along with the many of us common folk could come up with fair and humane solutions.
Those of you who keep trying to make this a Trump issue are looking through a very bias lens. This a very real human issue.
Mexico has very loose borders.
You got money, you get across.
“People don’t get into Canada without documentation”
Pure nonsense.
I know four illegals, on the Island, who come and go via Canada, no documentation.
The immigration ‘problem’ is due to world wide wealth/opportunity/freedom disparities.
Illegal immigration will end when the disparity ends.
This is all Obama’s fault.
If it weren’t Obama Cruz would have no idea where the Island is.
No Four Seasons Senator discounts.
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