Immigrants sent to Martha's Vineyard receive assistance 4:27
Edgartown, Mass. (CNN) —
After sharing hugs and tearful goodbyes with about 50 migrants who had unexpectedly flown to this thriving vacation island, volunteers who housed them at an Episcopal church brought tables and chairs, loaded food onto trucks and folded portable cots.
A familiar hush came Friday afternoon to the tree-lined block of downtown Martha's Vineyard, where 56-year-old Jackie Stallings couldn't stop thinking about a young Venezuelan woman (she was 23 but looked 15) who sat with her in the St. Andrew Parsonage the night before.
The asylum seeker showed Stallings cellphone video taken during the journey through a remote Central American jungle, pointing out migrants who died along the way.
"It was like he was showing me videos of cats, but it was really their journey and what they endured to get here," said Stallings, a member of the nonprofit Martha's Vineyard Community Services.
"There were bodies and mothers with babies trying to get through the mud that was like clay."
"The heartbreaking part is seeing these beautiful young women become callous," said her husband, Larkin Stallings, 66, an Oak Bluffs bar owner who sits on the nonprofit's board of directors.
"For them, they just turn around and show you a picture."
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Larkin Stallings is vice chairman of the board of the nonprofit Martha's Vineyard Community Services, which came to the aid of the migrants.
Stallings interrupted him.
“She was like, look, this one died, part of her original group. And he died and this one died. .
"And you see them, they literally have to get their legs out of the mud. They die because they get stuck."
During their whirlwind 44-hour visit this week, migrants like the young Venezuelan left an indelible mark on their accidental hosts in this isolated enclave known as a summer playground for former US presidents, celebrities and billionaires.
They flew from Texas as per arrangements made by Florida
Migrants, including young children, boarded buses Friday morning around the corner from St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.
The days of uncertainty on the small island off the coast of Massachusetts and a great effort by locals to support them ended with a new odyssey: a ferry ride and then another bus convoy to temporary housing at Joint Base Cape Cod. .
A mother stands outside St. Andrew's Church with her son.
The migrants were fed with food donated by the community.
The asylum seekers, most of them from Venezuela, had been flown from Texas to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday under arrangements made by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as part of a series of measures by Republican governors to transport migrants to liberal cities in protest of what they describe as the federal government's failure to secure the southern border.
Martha's Vineyard did not expect them, but a small army of activists mobilized to help people who had become pawns in the contentious debate over America's broken immigration system.
DeSantis' decision was heavily criticized by the White House, Democratic officials and immigration attorneys who vowed to take legal action because, they said, immigrants were lured north with promises of jobs, housing and help with immigration documents. and ultimately misled about their final destination.
The Florida governor denied that the migrants did not know where they were going.
He said they had signed a waiver and had been given a package that included a map of Martha's Vineyard.
"It's obvious that they were headed there," he said, adding that the transit was voluntary.
Lisa Belcastro, winter shelter coordinator for the nonprofit Harbor Homes, was on the verge of tears about an hour after the migrants left the island on Friday, as volunteers began cleaning the rectory and hall. from the church where the newcomers slept.
Inside St. Andrew's Parsonage, where the migrants slept for two nights in the basement.
"I want them to have a good life," he said.
"I want the journey and the hardships they experienced to be worth it for them and their families. I want them to come to America and be accepted. They all want to work. And I just want their journey to have a happy ending."
"No one knew we were coming"
On Thursday night, a group of young male immigrants congregated on the narrow street outside the church, just blocks from the glittering shops, restaurants and upscale art galleries on Main Street in Edgartown.
An asylum seeker, in his early 20s, ventured down the street to explore at one point.
He asked about the price of a hamburger at a fancy restaurant.
When told that it was US$26, he pointed out that it was much more than he earned in a month in Venezuela when he could find work.
Migrants sent to Martha's Vineyard arrive at Cape Cop
Through a front window of the rectory, young children could be seen in a playroom filled with books and stuffed animals.
Juan Ramírez, who is 24 years old but looks younger, stood outside the hall of the 123-year-old church, where 18 of the men slept on portable cots and air mattresses under donated blankets for two nights.
He broke down in tears talking about the family he left behind in Táchira state, in western Venezuela, when he embarked on his trip in late July with his phone and $400 in cash.
"My friends thought I was crazy to leave, that I would never make it. I just want a better future for my family," he said of his parents, grandparents and his favorite niece at home.
"I try, but it's hard not to think about them."
The cash was gone and his phone was stolen when Ramírez reached northern Mexico and the US border, he said.
Ramírez and other migrants recounted being released by US immigration authorities with an order to return for a hearing.
In San Antonio, they were approached by a woman who offered them a plane ride to a shelter in the Northeast where she would have housing, work and help with immigration papers.
The immigrants were housed in a hotel until about 50 of them gathered for the flight to Massachusetts.
The migrants gather outside the church on Wednesday, the day they arrived on Martha's Vineyard.
Juan Ramírez said that he and the other migrants "found people with good hearts who have supported us with everything we need."
"When we landed, no one was waiting for us," he said.
"No one knew we were coming. We realized that we had been lied to. But fortunately, we met people with good hearts who have supported us with everything we need."
"We are all in this together"
Pedro Luis Torrealba, 37, said he left the Venezuelan capital of Caracas with his wife in mid-July.
His two children, ages 6 and 11, stayed with relatives.
The couple began the roadless crossing of the Colombia-Panama border, the deadly Darien Gap, with more than 60 other migrants, Torrealba said outside the parish house Thursday night.
Only 22 completed the trek through the 96.5 km of jungle and steep mountains, he said.
Some fell from the cliffs, others were swept away by the flood waters.
Those deaths come at a time when a record number of undocumented immigrants are flooding the US-Mexico border and are dying trying to cross.
DeSantis promises that Florida will transport more immigrants from the border to other states
In Mexico, Torrealba said, the couple and other migrants were briefly kidnapped by members of the Zetas cartel, a violent drug-trafficking organization.
When he informed them he couldn't make the extortion payment to allow them to continue, he said, a cartel member used pliers to pull out his two gold teeth.
They finally crossed into the US earlier this month.
In San Antonio, they met a woman who offered them a free flight to a place they had never heard of, along with the promise of immigration, housing and employment assistance.
Torrealba did not receive treatment for injuries to his mouth and jaw until they reached Martha's Vineyard.
Another Venezuelan, David Bautista, 26, said he left San Cristóbal, the capital of Táchira state, at the end of July.
More than a month later, he crossed the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass, Texas, from the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras.
He commented that he was released by US immigration authorities after 11 days in detention.
He was given papers for an immigration hearing in Washington.
At a migrant shelter in San Antonio, he, too, was offered the free flight and the benefits that supposedly came with it, including help changing the date and location of his immigration hearing.
"I can't tell you more because I don't know more," he said.
"We're all lost. We're all in this together. We just know this is an island somewhere in the United States."
Martha's Vineyard is known as a prosperous vacation spot.
The immigrants arrived as the off-season progresses.
Standing next to Bautista, a 52-year-old man named Osmar Cabral, who said he was from Portugal and has been living on Martha's Vineyard for four months, handed the migrant a folded $100 bill.
"I had never met him before," Cabral said.
"But I came here with a friend because I wanted to help. We are all brothers."
His friend, Franklin Pierre, a Venezuelan who has lived on Martha's Vineyard since 2015 and works for a party rental company, was there to talk to some migrants and offer advice.
"You have to show up for your immigration hearing or you will be deported," Pierre told Bautista and other young people gathered around him.
"You come here after the busy summer season and it's hard to find a job. And the winter is very cold, sometimes it's minus 10 degrees. Imagine that and not having a job."
a sweet gesture
At one point Thursday night, a group of lawyers who had interviewed the migrants told reporters outside the rectory that they were exploring legal action, alleging that due process and the migrants' civil rights had been violated.
"This is a violation of human rights. This is a constitutional violation," said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Boston Lawyers for Civil Rights, to applause from volunteers and other supporters.
"And we will hold states and perpetrators accountable to the fullest extent of the law. This will not go unanswered."
Some bystanders recorded the scene with their cell phones.
Workers behind St. Andrew's help build a house in Edgartown.
Franklin Pierre, a Venezuelan who has lived on Martha's Vineyard since 2015, warned migrants that "it's hard to find work" after the busy summer season.
Rachel Self, an immigration attorney from Boston, also received applause.
"We've got their back and they're not alone. And to that end, I'd like to specifically thank Trader Fred for donating underwear because Martha's Vineyard doesn't have a Walmart across the street," he said, referring to the migrants and a local retailer who gave a step forward to help them.
A passerby suddenly left a bag of chocolates.
"I brought the candy," said Matt Frederick, 54, a local who said he works as a waiter and taxi driver and lives out of his car.
He had been handing out bags of candy to migrants on the street.
He said that he had spent $100 on candy.
"I just feel compassion," he said, adding that he lives in his car because he refuses to pay the exorbitant rents on the island.
"There are a lot of people here struggling to get ahead. They're not all rich."
On Friday, after the migrants left Martha's Vineyard, a volunteer with the nonprofit Harbor Homes, Sean O'Sullivan, disassembled the folding cots on which 18 of the male migrants were sleeping in the parish hall.
"The year-round community is very strong because you're kind of isolated here, whether it's the ferry or bad weather, you're stuck here," he said.
"We are used to helping each other. We are used to dealing with people in need and we are very happy, as if they made us rich, we are happy to help them on their journey."
In the empty parsonage hours after the migrants left, Charles Rus, the church's organist and music director, said the place felt lonely.
Charles Rus, the music director of St. Andrew's, lives on the top floor of the parsonage where the immigrants stayed.
He said the place feels lonely now.
"The governor of Florida was wrong," he said.
"I think he thought we wouldn't know what to do. And actually the people here really care. They really care."
Jackie Stallings said she hopes to visit the migrants at the base on Cape Cod, a temporary accommodation.
Migrants "will be housed in dormitory-style spaces ... with separate spaces to accommodate both individuals and families," and families will not be separated, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's office said in a news release.
They will have access to services including legal services, medical care, food, hygiene kits and crisis counseling.
“I kept telling them it was like a bedroom.
I didn't want to tell them they were going to a military base,” she claimed.
"We want to go make sure they're okay."
CNN's Miguel Marquez, Carolyn Sung and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.
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