POLITICAL TUG OF WAR EXPLODES

Illegal immigration fight taken to the Vineyard as 2024 positioning starts

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to send 50 Venezuelan immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard has thrust illegal immigration into the fire of the contentious midterm elections while giving DeSantis a leg up in the GOP 2024 race.

As the group of immigrants shipped to Cape Cod — courtesy of taxpayers — DeSantis seemed to bask in the national publicity of the move, saying he planned to send more planeloads of illegal immigrants to tony Democratic sanctuary states like Massachusetts.

The political tug of war over the immigrants — from both sides of the aisle — focused the spotlight squarely on the immigration crisis at the borders — which is what Republicans want.

But outraged Democrats say the callous political decision by DeSantis was a cruel stunt and noted that Martha’s Vineyard residents welcomed the immigrants — at least for two days — and did not shun them.

“What they’re doing is simply wrong, it’s unAmerican it’s reckless,” President Biden said.

DeSantis said the crisis showed that Biden’s open borders immigration policy is not working.

“It’s only when you have 50 illegal aliens end up in a very wealthy, rich sanctuary enclave that he decides to scramble on this,” DeSantis said on Friday.

DeSantis, who has a reelection race but is already gearing for a 2024 White

House campaign, could now be displacing former President Donald Trump as the GOP’s top dog. The Florida governor wants a confrontation with Biden.

While Trump has been sidelined by the legal battle over top secret White House documents, with a possible indictment looming, DeSantis has pounced to fill the void.

Republicans hope to seize on the illegal immigration crisis to keep weakened Democrats on the defensive right before the November elections.

Immigration could stand beside abortion rights and the economy as the major issues driving voters in the 2022 and 2024 elections, and DeSantis helped light the fire.

While Massachusetts — a lost cause for Republicans — and GOP Gov. Charlie Baker mobilized the National Guard to help the Venezuelan immigrants, the state must also spend money on health care, housing, jobs and education — a situation border states are already dealing with.

Just because they show up on Martha’s Vineyard and get bottled water and fruit cups, getting treated more like exchange students, that’s far from the end of the problem. For each one of these immigrants it’s a major allocation of taxpayer-funded resources.

And what if 5,000 — not 50 — immigrants get bused up here?

It stands to put a major strain on the resources of small communities and states, and ultimately the immigrants will end up in the poorest communities — Brockton, Lawrence, Chelsea — not Wellesley or Edgartown.

RAY EWING/VINEYARD GAZETTE VIA AP CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE: A woman, who is part of a group of immigrants that had just arrived, holds a child as they are fed outside St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Wednesday, in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard.

AP FILE SUCCESSFUL STUNT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seemed to score political points by sending two planeloads of immigrants from Venezuela to Martha’s Vineyard, saying it’s easy for northerners to talk about being kind to all, but not so easy when immigrants show up at your door.

AP FILE MISSED THE PLANE ON THIS ONE: Former President Donald Trump has been mired in wrangling over classified documents he reportedly took with him to his Mar-a-lago estate, as his potential 2024 presidential opponent made headlines by sending immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard.