By Venezuelan Voices
Photo credit: Migrants stand outside St. Andrew’s Church in Edgartown, Massachusetts, USA on Sept. 14. (Ray Ewing/Vineyard Gazette/Reuters)
Republican extreme right governors have resorted to transporting Latin American migrants and asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard, an island on the northeast of the country and to Washington, D.C., as a dirty tactic to demand even more repressive and restrictive policies by the Federal Government against immigrants.
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, a racist Republican, transported dozens of Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard, while Texas’ Governor, Greg Abbott, sent another group of migrants to the capital, near the Vice-President’s residence. These arbitrary measures have put migrants at risk as no alert was given to local authorities to prepare accommodation for them.
In recent weeks, 13 thousand migrants have been transported from Texas and Arizona to cities with Democrat mayors.
The two-party regime has applied for decades a very repressive policy against refugees and immigrants, including concentration camps complexes called ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), created in 2003. Democrats and Republicans alike have separated children from their parents, subjecting them to various forms of abuse. Obama’s record deportations earned him the title of “Deporter in Chief”.
Among the migrants weaponized by extreme right Republican authorities are Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan forcibly displaced people. While misery imposed by their respective governments and worsened by US economic sanctions is a major factor driving emigration to the US, Republicans and Democrats usually pose as sympathetic to Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Cubans for political purposes. Their associates in right wing opposition organizations in the countries of origin of these forcibly displaced people have not publicly criticized Republicans for their tactic of using migrants for electoral gains, agitating xenophobia and violating their fundamental rights.
The Socialism and Freedom Party of Venezuela (PSL) issued a statement rejecting “the use of Venezuelan migrants as an instrument in the internal politics of the US and, in addition, we demand the guarantee of their human rights and democratic rights”. The left-opposition organization reiterated its demand for the elimination of US economic sanctions and the return to the Venezuelan State of the assets and resources confiscated by US authorities, affirming the right of the Venezuelan working class to put an end to the authoritarian and capitalist Maduro regime.
Venezuelan Voices 