Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add new information and comments from public officials.
A receptionist at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services looked up late Wednesday afternoon to find a group of 50 people – men, women and children – standing in the center’s parking lot.
The migrants from Venezuela didn’t speak English but, with the help of a Spanish translator from the nearby Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, community services staff learned the group was from Venezuela and had been put on a plane with nothing but a brochure from the island’s service center.
They had walked the two miles or so from the airport to the center.
“We COVID-tested them all. Everyone was negative. A little girl had a temperature so we separated her with her family. A lot of them were shellshocked and afraid,” said Janet Constantino, a therapist and nurse practitioner working at the center.
The crowd wouldn’t fit in the building so staffers gave them water and snacks in the parking lot while a plan was made.
The migrants thought to be from Venezuela were flown by a chartered aircraft from Florida and/or Texas.
Foxnews.com reported that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as part of his “promise to drop off undocumented migrants in progressive states.”
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“This all started…
