As the shock waves from Barack Obama’s manufactured border crisis ripple across the country, turning every state into a border state, backlash is emanating from people who didn’t have much of a problem with open-borders ideology, back when they thought all the illegal aliens would be staying in the South. One such vignette comes from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, as reported at the Daily Signal:
Last week, the Democratic governor announced his offer to house up to 1,000 children at Camp Edwards military base on Cape Cod. Concerned for the children’s wellbeing, Patrick declared, “I think we are the kind of country and the kind of Commonwealth who can step up.”
The town of Bourne disagrees.
A wealthy and historic community at the mouth of Cape Cod, Bourne traditionally attracts vacationers and tourists, not refugees. Residents fear the influx of migrant children could change this forever.
On Tuesday, the town’s Board of Selectman voted unanimously to oppose the governor’s plan and draft an open letter of protest. Chairman Peter J. Meier summarized the sentiment of the board saying, “We are here to provide services, and we need to take care of our own first.”
“We need to take care of our own first?’ Sorry, Mr. Meier, but that’s not how things work in open-borders America. Barack Obama’s invited guests take priority over services to existing citizens and legal immigrants. We are no longer a prosperous First World country with a generous immigration policy, or a compassionate nation with the economic strength to respond to honest entreaties from those in need. We’re going to absorb a sizable chunk of the population of Central America, and it doesn’t matter a hill of beans what the American people think about it. The decision was taken out of your hands.
The sheer hypocrisy of the illegal immigration debacle that has been brewing for decades is on full, breathtaking display with this “not in my backyard” stuff. Border security was the exclusive concern of redneck racists back when “wealthy and historic communities” didn’t have to deal with any of the fallout.
For hours, Kurt Schwartz tried in vain to assuage the board’s fears. The state’s undersecretary of homeland security explained that the children would remain on base, away from town, and out of community schools.
Responding to claims that children were already being sent to Massachusetts, Schwartz told the board, “You are responding to rumors that have no basis in fact.”
Selectman Linda Zuern still disagreed and disapproved of the governor’s plan to move unilaterally. “I think we’ve been kept in the dark, and it’s our town,” she said, according to the Cape Cod Times.
A crowd of about 40 local citizens gathered to voice their concern. Mary Woodruff, an older Bourne resident, captured the group’s mood. “They’re adults,” she told the Boston Globe. “And they’re going to be sucking us dry. Send them back.“
Now that people in Massachusetts know how it feels to be a rancher in Texas or Arizona, maybe we can finally start talking sense about the border crisis.