EDGARTOWN, Mass. — After two full days of sheltering in a Martha’s Vineyard Episcopalian parish, a group of traveling migrants from Venezuela was bused and ferried off the Massachusetts island on Friday morning.
Amid teary-eyed farewell hugs, volunteers who had worked around the clock to provide shelter, food, clothing and other basic necessities to the 48 migrants waved goodbye as they loaded onto buses. Staff at the St. Andrews Episcopalian Church in Edgartown told reporters the busing was voluntary.
“My heart breaks for them because they were not the first priority,” said Lisa Belcastro, one of the volunteers at St. Andrews. “They’re in my heart forever.”
Domingo Cruz, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, met with the migrants Friday morning before they left. The families were being taken to the island’s Steamship Authority Vineyard Haven terminal, where they left for Joint Base Cape Cod, a Massachusetts National Guard facility, attorneys said. The base is about 60 miles from both Boston and Providence, Rhode Island.
From there, Cruz said attorneys and state officials would arrange to help them find accommodations in Massachusetts or out of state.
Many of them say they are headed to Florida cities, Cruz said, where they have friends or family.
“The irony is that Governor [Ron] DeSantis paid for them to be brought here,” Cruz said.
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