"They Were Promised Jobs and a Better Life."

This sentence, or variations of it, were used to describe the experiences of "migrants" who were flown, unwittingly, from Florida to Massachusetts.  At the moment, they're suing Ron DeSantis.

I don't know exactly for what they're suing him, but if any other person had been induced, by a lie, to go somewhere he or she didn't want to go, the usual word for such a manipulation would be kidnapping.  "Come into the back of my truck, sonny (or little girl).  Your mom asked me to pick you up, and take you home.  I have some candy for you." Which ends in rape, murder, or being taken into the woods and left there.

But that's not the point.  The point is that the promise -- jobs and a better life -- is what all of us, except the Native Americans and the Africans, are doing here.  What these "migrants" wanted in coming here (which they did legally, and registered themselves properly, according to a report I heard) is what everyone, beginning with the Pilgrims, wanted when they came here.  (If the link works, look at the end of the "The legal action comes..." paragraph.)  https://www.npr.org/2022/09/20/1124160949/migrants-lawsuit-ron-desantis-marthas-vineyard

It's what the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews, the South and Central Americans, the Russians, the "Arabs" (middle easterners), the Cubans, the Venezuelans, and everyone else who came to this country wanted: a better life, or at least better than the lives they had in whatever was their "old country." And an opportunity to work.

The reflex of some is to portray these "migrants" as having come here to make trouble, or take advantage of benefits of the system.  But it's simply not true.  Ron DeSantis knew it wasn't true.  He offered them what he knew they wanted, which is what his forebears wanted, which is what everyone else (again, except for the Native Americans and the Africans) wanted: jobs and a better life.

And the problem with that is what?  Whatever anyone thinks it is, was it also that problem when the rest of our forebears came here?  To put it another way, who should go back home?  All of us?  Every immigration has been followed by a reaction just like this one.  Do you know that this country limited how many Jews could come here when they were escaping the Nazis?  There was a sizable enough contingent of "real Americans" that didn't want so many of "those" people here.

And all groups of immigrants initially, at least, huddle together, in Chinatowns, Gemantowns, Little Havanas, Little Haitis, and other such groupings.  It's not uncommon for it to take a generation until the products of those immigrations become fluent in English and fully functional in American society.  I once had a job as the Psychiatric Medical Director in a clinic in the North End of downtown Boston, which was, and still is, very Italian.  I took night school classes in Italian, because there were so many immigrants, some of whom had been in eastern Massachusetts for decades, but who had never learned English very well (and sometimes, the people who could translate were busy).  And some of them didn't even live in Boston or the North End any more.  They and their close families had moved to towns not far away, but they still liked frequenting the North End.  Maybe it was because it was where there were other people who could talk to them.  I was actually proud of myself one day, when I was in a grocery store checkout line somewhere else in eastern Massachusetts, and the people in front of me were speaking Italian.  I said something to them in Italian, and they asked me from what part of Italy I came.

Once when I was running for office in BP, I encountered an older woman who was Cuban, and she made some comment about "illegal aliens."  I asked her if she knew why Cubans weren't illegal aliens.  It was because we said so.  They were having trouble with Castro, and we told them that if they could get here, we would welcome them in.  We didn't ask if they could speak English, if they could get jobs, or if they had health problems.  We just opened the doors.  And there is no reason in the world why we can't do that for anyone else who wants a life in this country.  The vast majority of people don't, but some do.  So come on in.

There's no reason to treat immigrants any differently than we treat each other.  We're here, they're here (or want to come here), and it's always for the same reason.  Ask Ron DeSantis.  He knows what immigrants want.  He could have offered them welfare and free medical care, but he knew that's not what they came here to achieve.

PS: There's a movie -- I haven't seen it -- called "A Day Without a Mexican."  As I understand it, it's about what would happen if there were suddenly no Mexicans (in California, I think) to do all the things workers like them do, which no one else wants to do.  One review was as follows: "Such a great idea for a movie, but pretty poorly executed.  I would like to have seen better acting, and more of the extensive impact losing Mexicans (or any immigrants for that matter) would have on our daily life."

Also, several years ago, the state of Alabama suddenly took a hard line on illegal immigrants, as exemplified by migrant agricultural workers (the people Ron DeSantis kidnapped were not illegal immigrants).  There was suddenly no one willing to do the agricultural work, so that industry crashed, and the policy had to be rescinded.