The gag at Martha’s Vineyard having run its course, Republicans now are hinting they may send busloads or planeloads of migrants to the next available conservative punchline city.
That would be Seattle.
The Republican Governors Association has a fundraising pitch centered around a red-meat survey question for its base: “Where should GOP governors send Biden’s Buses of Illegal Immigrants?” This refers to how Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and other red-state cowboys have been dumping groups of duped refugees or asylum-seekers into blue-state cities.
Who should be next, the survey asks. OK, since you asked. I vote “Seattle.”
Yes, that’s right, do Seattle next, please. Better yet, do the whole state of Washington. Send us some refugees. We want you to. Though I don’t speak for Seattle and certainly not for the whole state of Washington, I am 100 percent confident that we want them. So if your pitch is serious, by all means, send them our way.
How can I say this? Well for starters, for the past decade Washington has been one of the top states in the nation for taking in refugees. Already in 2022, we have taken in nearly 3,000 Afghan war evacuees (fourth in the nation), as well as 763 Afghani “special visa” migrants (also fourth), many of whom helped our military and then fled the Taliban. This is something people around here tend to be proud of, not something to hide from.
