I’d first like to thank the people of Martha’s Vineyard for being incredibly welcoming to the two planeloads of border crossers that were unexpectedly delivered to them recently. I’m also hoping that the people who were dropped off at the US. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., also received like treatment.

Many people think that this was nothing more than a political maneuver aimed at making a point about border crossings. It may have well been but it was also a cry of frustration by those who have seen their states inundated with people who can’t speak the language of this country, don’t know its laws, and have no place to stay or even the opportunity for immediate employment.

Yet all of this is loaded onto the backs of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas and to a lesser degree Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and the northern border states.

Yet Joe Biden called sending these people out of these border states un-American and not who we are. What’s un-American is letting these border states fend for themselves while the remaining states are barely untouched by the flow of border crossers until some of them migrate inland and communities are forced to contend with homelessness, providing health care and food.

If the federal government is not concerned with stemming the tide of border crossings than they need to come up with a comprehensive plan to distribute these individuals and families evenly across this country and lessen the incredible financial, social and law enforcement stress that the states I mentioned above are facing.

Although at this point, there seems to be nothing being done about the problem other than letting certain states absorb the brunt of a serious, fast-growing dilemma.

 

Pat Michaud

Augusta