It is a measure of how degraded our politics and our democracy have become when vulnerable human beings are used as political props and our sense of collective public outrage barely registers. The Republican governors of Florida, Texas,and Arizona have been busing or flying thousands of migrants to the state of Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., New York and other sanctuary cities. It is the type of casual cruelty and humiliation found in the basest reality television competitions. The most vulnerable among us are being used as unwilling pawns in a disgusting political spectacle.
As Cornell law professor Michael Dorf points out, Gov. Ron DeSantis — by deceiving migrants, telling them he was flying them to Boston to waiting jobs and instead transporting them to Martha’s Vineyard — clearly violated Texas’s laws against “unlawful restraint ” (along with other possible violations of state and federal laws).
Beyond issues of legality, Governors DeSantis (Florida), Abbott (Texas), and Ducey (Arizona) claim to be people of faith (practicing Catholics) and yet are failing miserably to adhere to the core tenet of welcoming the stranger.
In response, FOR-USA and Faith Strategies, under the direction of Rev. Graylan Hagler, organized a faith sign-on letter, individual petition, and press conference in Washington, D.C. to call for:
• The Department of Justice to investigate the governors of the states of Texas and Florida as to whether they have engaged or are engaging in kidnapping and/or human trafficking.
• Governors, mayors, and city councils, specifically Mayor Bower and the DC city council, to put pressure on the Justice Department to investigate any states that send migrants across state lines without permission, knowledge, or consent.
In the words of British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, “no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” We pray and act for the day when no one is forced from their home and all people are welcome.