Vivek Ramaswamy responds to Massachusetts governor's apparent migrant flip-flop
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reacts on 'The Ingraham Angle' after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declares emergency.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reacted Tuesday to the latest Democratic official to express concern over the migrant crisis, which he said reveals a subtle shift in establishment orthodoxy.
Earlier Tuesday, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency as the Bay State continues to field an influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers from the Mexican border.
"The declaration serves as a notice to the federal government and the Commonwealth that the state’s shelter system is rapidly expanding capacity in an unsustainable manner, and that further assistance is urgently needed," read a press release from the offices of Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll.
"There are currently nearly 5,600 families or more than 20,000 individuals in state shelter, including children and pregnant women."
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Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
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On "The Ingraham Angle," host Laura Ingraham asked Ramaswamy about Healey's declaration amid a broader discussion on the porous border and dangerous elements crossing through it.
Ingraham noted Healey, while the Bay State's attorney general in 2017, told the Boston Globe that "we have a system that's working well here" when asked about Massachusetts becoming a sanctuary state.
However, in a public statement this week, Healey said the "increased level of demand is not slowing down" and that the influx is "unsustainable."
In response, Ramaswamy agreed that Boston "elites" must be upset with the sudden changes in their communities.
Ramaswamy (SERGIO FLORES/AFP via Getty Images)
"Now, the donor class that pulls the strings in both parties has decided it's now inside the Overton Window to actually complain about the southern border," he said, referring to the rhetorical device that depicts the spectrum of politically acceptable positions at any given time.
"The problem is it is too little, too late, and the fact is even the wall, which they actually criticized long ago, most people are now quietly on the side of the wall — even Democrats are."
A flight connected to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew migrants to Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where residents promptly acted to essentially remove them back to the mainland. DeSantis' move was partially in response to flights reportedly charted by the Biden administration to suburbs across the country.
Ramaswamy suggested that there must be a more marked shift against lax borders, saying it will take "courage" to end the crisis, which he claimed would also help assuage the economic and trafficking crises in the United States.
In her letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas following her declaration, Healey wrote that migrants had been drawn to the state because of its position as a "beacon to those in need," also urging reforms to "punitive immigration laws" and work authorization policies as well as a call for more financial assistance to the states.
The New York Post further noted that Massachusetts is the only "right-to-shelter" state, which guarantees homeless families shelter regardless of citizenship.
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