White House: DeSantis sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard ‘disrespectful to humanity’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday blasted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, calling the maneuver a “political stunt’ that threatens the well-being of vulnerable families and children.

Jean-Pierre, speaking during a regularly scheduled press briefing, was responding to questions about both the decision from the DeSantis administration to fly migrants to the Massachusetts vacation island and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s concurrent move to send a different group of migrants by bus to Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington, D.C. The moves from the governors ignited a national controversy Thursday and renewed a debate about the state of the southern border and the federal and state governments’ responses to a surge of migrants seeking entry into the country.

The press secretary called both actions “cruel” and unnecessary.

“There’s a legal way of doing this and for managing migrants,” Jean-Pierre said. “Republican governors interfering in that process and using migrants as political pawns, is, is shameful, is reckless, and just plain wrong.”

Many of those migrants, she added, were fleeing hardship or communist governments in Latin and South America.

Asked if the White House would take legal action against the governors, the press secretary deferred to officials at the Department of Justice. But she said the actions were “disrespectful to humanity.”

“The fact that, that Fox News and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city, or local NGOs were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy D.C. street makes clear that this is just a cruel, premeditated political stunt,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is what they are doing.”

White House officials have had to defend their handling of the border almost since the start of President Joe Biden’s term in office, amid a large increase in the number of migrants arriving at the border. The president has called for Congress to approve major immigration reform legislation to deal with the problem, a sentiment Jean-Pierre reiterated Thursday.

“We’re committed to getting it done and getting to do it in a humane way to do it, in a safe way. And as we have repeatedly said, a long-term solution can only come from a comprehensive legislation that brings lasting reform to a fundamentally broken system. We understand that and that’s why we continue to call on Congress to also act.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2022 at 2:50 PM.

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Alex Roarty

McClatchy DC

202-383-6173

Alex Roarty has written about the Democratic Party since joining McClatchy in 2017. He’s been a campaigns reporter in Washington since 2010, after covering politics and state government in Pennsylvania during former Gov. Ed Rendell’s second term.

Gillian Brassil

McClatchy DC

Gillian Brassil is the congressional reporter for McClatchy’s California publications. She covers federal policies, people and issues that impact the Golden State from Capitol Hill. She graduated from Stanford University.