By April Ryan
“I am shook, saddened, and sickened to my core,” responds India Rose, owner/founder of the Martha’s Vineyard Black-Owned Business Directory, in response to ICE raids in Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The round-up of illegal migrants has produced arrests, according to reports. Authorities were wearing vests that also read DEA, FBI, and police. The policing units used unmarked cars ferried to the island to locate migrants.
This is the prime time workers from other countries begin checking in for work at the vacation spots starting the 2025 vacation season, which is highly supported by those on foreign work visas. All employees are said to usually be in place entirely by June 15 of each vacation season that ends in October.
Many migrant workers are from Brazil, Jamaica, and Eastern European countries like Serbia, Romania, Georgia, and Yugoslavia.
Rose also told Black Press USA, “As a business owner and year-round island resident, seeing so many of my neighboring small businesses closed today out of the fear that this federal presence has instilled is frightening.” Regarding the impact on island sustainability amid these raids, Rose affirms, “This affects families, our local economy, and tourism here as a whole, which small businesses here fully depend on. These are scary times we are living in.”
In December of 2024, then-President-elect Donald Trump supported the H-1B visa program, stating, “I’ve always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them.”
An H-1B Visa is a nonimmigrant visa that temporarily allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
However, other work visas are prevalent on the island. Jamaicans are also provided with H-2B work visas for temporary or seasonal non-agricultural work. Martha’s Vineyard also offers J-1 Work Visas to Serbians, Georgians, Romanians, and Eastern Europeans. The J-1 visa is a non-immigrant visa for foreign nationals participating in exchange visitor programs in the United States, including those for work and study.
Martha’s Vineyard has been a Black destination spot, particularly in August. It has garnered much attention in shows and movies, like the most recent film, Forever’ on Netflix and Bravo’s Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard.
The irony of this raid is that on September 14, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent 50 Venezuelan migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It was part of a relocation program to ”sanctuary destinations.”
Shortly after the Vineyard drop-off, migrants were also left in front of then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ home at the Naval Observatory to bring attention to the illegal migrant issue and sanctuary cities.
