Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said he believes Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis were right to send approximately 50 illegal immigrants to the Massachusetts beach community of Martha's Vineyard last week.
From a public-relations standpoint, Arrington said the optics of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker calling in the National Guard to relocate a few busloads of migrants off the island — after less than 48 hours of being at a summertime vacation spot for wealthy people living along the East Coast — brought more attention to the crisis at the United States-Mexico border than the previous months combined.
"It's easy to claim that your city is a sanctuary city that would aid and abet the lawlessness that comes with having an open border, until the consequences of that lawlessness falls into your lap and affects your city," Arrington told Newsmax Tuesday afternoon, while appearing on "American Agenda" with hosts Bob Sellers and Katrina Szish.
Arrington then added, "I think it's been very effective to spread the pain and the consequences to our open border."
When pressed on the news of a Texas sheriff launching a potential criminal probe into DeSantis helping ship the migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Arrington responded, "This is the cheapest of political stunts [on the Democrats' part]. It's obviously hypocritical, and the American people see right through it."
The El Paso, Texas mayor, a Democrat, acknowledging he has also moved migrants to sanctuary cities, such as New York City.
The Biden White House last year admitted to stealthily flying migrants to various parts of the country — after President Joe Biden pulled out American military troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Arrington says the Abbott-DeSantis move with migrants has brought increased attention to the problems along the southern border, where lethal drugs, such as fentanyl, are pouring into the country. Also, more than 5 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the U.S. since the Biden administration took over the White House in January 2021.
Arrington laments how a single entry port at the southern border — the Del Rio Sector in Eagle Pass, Texas — has already yielded 375,000 illegal immigrant encounters in 2022 for border agents to process.
Arrington marveled at the media attention going to New York City or Martha's Vineyard officials for becoming "unglued" or yelling "crisis," when a few hundred people are shipped north from border towns.
"The cost [of immigration] is tremendous [for the border states] on a number of fronts," says Arrington, who oversees the 19th Congressional District, which covers a large swath of west Texas.
To stop the proliferation of lethal drugs, cartels, and illegal immigrants pouring into this country in record numbers, Arrington pointedly said, "The states are going to have to do the job the federal government refuses to do, and lay hands on the folks" — regarding deportation — "or we won't have the Texas we have today."
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