Vice President Kamala Harris recently slammed Republican leaders, suggesting they are making life worse for asylum seekers and women. During a Vice video, Harris asked whether she thought “democracy” was “backsliding” after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion. The vice president said, “I do believe that it challenges the strength of our ability to fight for democracies around the world when we have fundamental rights that are being attacked by extremist so-called leaders within our own country.”
Liz Landers, Vice News interviewer, asked Harris if she “understood the political point that DeSantis and Abbott are trying to make” when they send migrants to liberal areas, including 50 recently sent to Martha’s Vineyard. The vice president slammed the Republican governors’ actions. “They’re playing games,” said Harris. “These are political stunts with real human beings who are fleeing harm. Do you know what’s happening in Venezuela right now?”
Harris continued her comments that the migrants “came to the United States of America seeking refuge — asylum. I think it is the height of irresponsibility — much less, frankly, dereliction of duty when you are an elected leader to play those kinds of games with human life.”
The vice president was then asked if she could “understand the frustration that Americans have about the situation at the border.” She responded by suggesting the Trump Administration was to blame. “Under the previous administration, they decimated a system that was designed to address immigration,” Harris said while suggesting President Biden and his administration have been using its time and resources to “reconstruct that system.”
Democrat Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal echoed Harris’ talking points, making a similar comment during an interview while suggesting Republicans and former President Trump was to blame for decreasing legal means to attain legalized citizenship and dismantling the previous immigration system.
Migrants sent to VP’s residents; Governors defend migrant relocation
About 50 migrants, including an infant, were sent by bus from Texas to the D.C. residence of the vice president as part of the latest move by border state governors to transfer migrants across the country. The bus mainly let Venezuelan migrants off outside the Naval Observatory, America’s traditional home of vice presidents. They had been sent by Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott, whose border state has been inundated with illegal migrant crossings, straining Border Patrol, sheriffs, and state officers.
Vice President Harris said she has been working to address the root causes of mass migration into the United States so that more people can “take care of themselves in their home countries.” Harris continued, slamming Republican leaders for being “inhumane” towards migrants.
“You know, doing it for the sake of a headline, what we’re seeing with these governors, it — is irresponsible, and it’s — it’s inhumane. It’s inhumane,” Harris said.
Democrat Massachusetts State Representative Dylan Fernandes, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, told the Martha’s Vineyard Times the move of migrants to the island was “inhumane” and “disgusting.” Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis transferred migrants from his state to the Massachusetts island.
“These governors or whoever it is, all they care about is scoring some political points on Tucker Carlson and Fox News,” said Fernandes. “These people claim to be Christians? This is about as un-Christian a thing as you could be doing. It’s evil.”
California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom called for a federal probe into the migrants’ flights into Martha’s vineyard, calling moves “morally reprehensible.”
Governor DeSantis quickly defended his decision to send Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, saying Democrats’ outrage over the flights was misplaced. DeSantis emphasized, “It’s really frustrating. Millions of people since Biden’s been president illegally coming across the southern border. Did they freak out about that? No.”
“You’ve had migrants die in the Rio Grande — you had 50 die in Texas in a trailer because they were being neglected. Was there a freakout about that? No, there wasn’t,” said DeSantis. His office released a statement backing his decision to send the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard:
“Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ‘left to fend for themselves.’ Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected. Unless the M.A. national guard has abandoned these individuals, they have been provided accommodations, sustenance, clothing, and more options to succeed following their unfair enticement into the United States, unlike the 53 immigrants who died in a truck found abandoned in Bexar County this June.”
Governor Abbott also defended relocating migrants, saying, “We’ve got to secure our border because the Biden administration is not securing it,” said Abbott. “And then the reason why we began putting people on buses in the first place is because the Biden administration, they were literally dumping migrants off in small little towns of 10 or 25,000 people, and they were completely overwhelmed.”
Along the southern U.S./Mexico border, border agents saw a record high migrant crossings this fiscal year, which ends September 30, with 2,150,244 migrant “encounters” so far.
