These stunts are bad, and yet in terms of consequences, I think the mundane cruelties of a)Jim Crow or b)ICE are much worse. That is -- I'm not sure if the "victims" of the Reverse Freedom Rides were worse off for being sent north. Same for the "victims" of the DeSantis stunt.
Oh, yeah. DeSantis made some asshole statement about how they were better off for the trip, which is probably true, but still doesn't excuse tricking people onto a plane and sending them to a small island with no appropriate facilities.
Like, 50 people to an island with a population of 15,000 is 0.3 percent of the entire population. That's just stupid.
I don't think the size of the island matters in a moral calculation.
I don't think the size of the island matters in a moral calculation.
*British politicians breathe a sigh of relief*
4 before seeing 3. I think the deception is what matters most.
Anyway, I'm prepared to accept that they would have gone willingly if DeSantis was honest and that he just lied as a matter of habit, but I don't think it's obvious that they would have.
I agree that Jim Crow and ICE are worse! Just, y'know, novelty bias. I already know about those things.
The deception is the big moral issue. Without the deception, I think Abbot has been busing asylees to NYC for a while, I'm not sure how deceptively. And I don't think that's a meaningful injury to NY, if the asylees are fine with it -- we have the capacity in social services to help them out, whether or not we actually perform adequately at that. And of course we have the whole statue in the harbor committing us to the idea.
But putting them on a plane to Martha's Vineyard is just a dumb stunt -- there obviously weren't services in place for them there.
Right, but rather than abandon my stupid comment, I'm going to argue that I'm right since Martha's Vineyard is larger than many islands with plenty of services.
What if you put one asylum seeker each on one island of an archipelago, each offering a different service? Better, worse, or about the same?
Why did DeSantis send people from Texas? Did no one want to leave Florida? That seems unlikely.
Obviously tastes vary, but Texas is just objectively a better place than Florida.
People don't flow across the border to Fl in an uncontrolled way in the same way they do to states with land borders. Not that there aren't people seeking asylum in Florida, but they've been in the country for a bit and been through whatever the first level of processing is.
Maybe I remember Clueless too well.
Were there ever many Haitians on boats? It's a lot farther than Cuba. But in any case, I think there aren't many boat people these days.
That was longer ago than I thought. I'm old.
Other than the deception I think it's a good idea. If Florida has so much money to spend on helping migrants, how about they offer them all travel vouchers? Some would travel to be with family, some would travel to places with jobs, and in so far as there is a problem with land-border states being overwhelmed with asylum-seekers, it would help disperse them throughout the country.
Aren't they? Maybe only after it's granted.
Do we know who Perla is yet?
The whole stunt is a pathetic play for applause from the garbage faction. Are they are applauding, so, success!
It sounded for a while like some federal employees were involved in the MV stunt. If so, one hopes for summary termination.
I think all 50 tricked into going to MV should be granted citizenship asap -- let the VP administer the oath -- and given vouchers, if they want, to move to Florida or Texas.
The NYPost should be ashamed of itself, but it very clearly lost that capacity many decades ago.
14: Obviously Desantis isn't politically dumb enough to have tried that stunt with asylum seekers from Cuba, but it's amusing to imagine: what if?
There are no asylum seekers from Cuba, no? Cubans have a completely separate easy immigration path that's Cuban-only, right?
So, uh, these protests in Iran should probably be getting more attention.
Ah, the Post is on it. Amazing stuff.
23: I think Abbot flew a bunch of people to Sacramento. They had to walk from the airport to the city. The coverage of that stunt hasn't been as extensive.
Because no one in Sacramento can relate to walking?
Abbott has got to be pissed that DeSantis is getting so much attention for this stunt.
I would link the article, but I'm on my phone. Anyway, the article says that no one is claiming responsibility for the migrants that were flown to Sacramento.
25: Except he chose Venezuelans, and the Venezuelan exile community is fairly Republican-leaning (and reportedly pissed off about this): https://www.wsj.com/articles/like-the-cubans-before-them-venezuelan-exiles-are-transforming-florida-politics-1512327743
If there's one thing we know about right-wing Venezuelans, it's that they aren't very good at getting the political outcome they want.