{"id":1648140,"date":"2022-09-20T06:32:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1648140"},"modified":"2022-09-20T06:34:05","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:34:05","slug":"sorry-theres-no-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard-just-a-lot-of-left-wing-condescension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sorry-theres-no-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard-just-a-lot-of-left-wing-condescension\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorry, There\u2019s No \u2018Smoking Gun\u2019 In Martha\u2019s Vineyard, Just A Lot Of Left-Wing Condescension"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsorry-theres-no-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard-just-a-lot-of-left-wing-condescension%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1648140&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>One of the most condescending and insulting responses on the left to the Martha\u2019s Vineyard migrant imbroglio last week was the repeated insistence, by blue-check media figures and Democrat politicians alike, that the 50 migrants who voluntarily boarded a plane to Massachusetts were somehow misled or tricked into it.<\/p>\n<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in this fevered telling, took advantage of these poor people for a political stunt, proving himself to be a cruel and heartless man, willing to exploit the misfortune of desperate migrants \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomselliott\/status\/1570410940855877637?s=20&amp;t=5dKYK9TrO8NgVvFBkNHGww\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">weaponize them!<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u00a0just to own the libs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to think of a more patronizing attitude toward men and women who successfully navigated a harrowing exodus from Venezuela and Columbia, trekked through Central America and Mexico, dealt with smugglers and cartels and corrupt police the entire way, and finally set foot in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to insulting left-wing stereotypes about ignorant and confused migrants, the people who show up at our southern border tend to be tough, determined, and keenly aware of what\u2019s in their own best interest. (I know that firsthand, having interviewed hundreds of migrants over the years, most recently\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N4hUfRufhdU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in Reynosa and Matamoros, Mexico<\/a>. I always come away impressed by their grit and resolve and resourcefulness, which is more than I can say for Twitter blue-checks who are happy to opine about what we should do about \u201chelpless migrants\u201d but can\u2019t be bothered to take a trip to the border to interview them in person.)<\/p>\n<p>Now comes Judd Legum with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/popular.info\/p\/the-smoking-gun-in-marthas-vineyard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an unintentionally hilarious story<\/a>\u00a0for Popular Information purporting to be a \u201csmoking gun\u201d proving that the Martha\u2019s Vineyard migrants were lied to \u2014 and maybe even kidnapped! It\u2019s probably the purest possible distillation of the condescending left-wing notion of confused and helpless migrants being led around by the nose by cynical and evil Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Legum opens his breathless reportage with this bombshell: \u201cPopular Information has obtained documentary evidence that migrants from Venezuela were provided with false information to convince them to board flights chartered by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R). The documents suggest that the flights were not just a callous political stunt but potentially a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And what is this documentary evidence? A brochure outlining refugee and immigrant benefits and assistance available in Massachusetts, which is a sanctuary state with multiple state programs designed to assist refugees and migrants. Legum says he got the brochure from Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a Boston-based legal organization that\u2019s supposedly representing 30 of the migrants, who presumably got it from Florida officials before they boarded the flight to Martha\u2019s Vineyard.<\/p>\n<p>According to Legum, though, the benefits described in the brochure are only available to refugees who have been referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and authorized to live in the U.S. They\u2019re not for illegal immigrants who have claimed asylum, like the Martha\u2019s Vineyard migrants. Therefore, he says, they were misled. Lawyers for LCR are now asking the Massachusetts attorney general to open an investigation. \u201cThe allegation that the migrants were misled is legally significant,\u201d writes Legum. \u201cIt would mean that the flights were not just heartless, but potentially criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But no matter how much activist reporters like Legum might wish that DeSantis had somehow committed a crime by offering illegal immigrants a voluntary free flight to Massachusetts, it just isn\u2019t so. The 50 or so migrants who landed in Martha\u2019s Vineyard last week were never promised employment or anything else, they were simply told that sanctuary states like Massachusetts, unlike Florida and Texas, have programs and assistance available to refugees and migrants, which is true.<\/p>\n<p>The brochure in question, for example, contains a list of community services and churches that have migrant assistance programs. The first one listed is a link for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/firststopmv.org\/provider\/category\/legal-assistance\/immigration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the immigration page<\/a>\u00a0of a website called First Stop Martha\u2019s Vineyard, which is an online reference guide to the island\u2019s social services and programs. It includes information about the Massachusetts Office for Refugee and Immigrants, among other programs.<\/p>\n<p>The flights themselves were organized and funded as part of Florida\u2019s relocation program to transport Florida-bound illegal immigrants to sanctuary states like Massachusetts, California, and New York. The Florida legislature last year set aside $12 million for the program, which also targets human smugglers and traffickers through a law enforcement strike force. Texas has a similar program under the aegis of Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s $4 billion ongoing border security initiative, Operation Lone Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Florida officials, the Martha\u2019s Vineyard migrants were identified in Texas as Florida-bound, but with no resources to travel. Some of them were sleeping in the streets, others in shelters. They were put up in hotels for a night or two and offered voluntary transport to Martha\u2019s Vineyard. Some, after a night in a hotel, changed their minds and opted not to go. One migrant, a man named Eduardo Linares,\u00a0told the Texas Tribune\u00a0he declined the offer but that he\u2019s since heard from people who went to Martha\u2019s Vineyard, and now he\u2019s wondering whether he made the right decision.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Legum quotes Linares alleging that a mysterious blonde-haired woman named \u201cPerla\u201d promised him and others a job and rent assistance in Martha\u2019s Vineyard, but left out the part about Linares second-guessing his decision to stay behind.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because including that detail would disrupt the preposterous narrative that these migrants are confused and helpless, unable to make their own decisions, and totally at the mercy of duplicitous, scheming politicians like DeSantis and Abbott.<\/p>\n<p>The reality of the situation is more complicated. Often, illegal immigrants who cross the southern border into the U.S. already have a job lined up and a place to stay, usually with family members. They\u2019re bound for points all across the country, from California to Massachusetts. Some might even make their way to Martha\u2019s Vineyard, especially if they\u2019re offered a free ride.<\/p>\n<p>That is to say, most of them have a plan. But you would never know it from the coverage of the Martha\u2019s Vineyard saga, which didn\u2019t just demonstrate the hypocrisy of leftists who welcome illegal immigrants so long as they don\u2019t show up in places like Martha\u2019s Vineyard. It also demonstrated the appalling condescension many in the corporate press have toward the very migrants they pretend to champion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  John Daniel Davidson is a senior editor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Claremont Review of Books, The New York Post, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter, @johnddavidson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most condescending and insulting responses on the left to the Martha\u2019s Vineyard migrant imbroglio last week was the repeated insistence, by blue-check media figures and Democrat politicians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1648140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1648140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1648140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1648140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1648140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}