Ted Cruz wants to send migrants from the Mexican border to Newport, Block Island and Nantucket

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, has introduced legislation that would create new ports of entry, including in Newport and on Block Island and Nantucket, to process what he calls "illegal aliens pouring into the country."

"This legislation would establish new ports of entry in 13 communities across the country and mandate that all illegal aliens encountered at Border Patrol Sectors in Texas be transferred to these new ports for processing," Cruz said in a statement posted on his website.

The locations in his Stop the Surge of Unsafe Rio Grande Encampments Actlegislation are "Democratic-led communities" such as Martha’s Vineyard, "where Democrat elites host their cocktail parties," the statement said.

Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Democrats, spent summer vacations on the Vineyard during their presidencies. Obama and his wife, Michelle, loved the island so much that they bought a seven-bedroom, 7,000-square-foot home in the Katama section of Edgartown in late 2019 for a reported $11.75 million.

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For decades, President Joe Biden and his family have made an annual Thanksgiving holiday visit to Nantucket.

In a post on Twitter, U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts, termed the legislation "lame."

"Why is it that whenever Ted Cruz is facing a crisis in Texas his mind seems to wander to vacation destinations? First it was Cancun, now it’s Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Last week he voted to default on our nation’s debt, now he’s wasting resources on lame political stunts," Keating posted.

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Another port of entry proposed by Cruz is in North Hero, Vermont. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, a two-time presidential candidate, owns a waterfront home on the island in 120-mile-long Lake Champlain, which separates Vermont and New York.

"The legislation would provide much-needed relief to Border Patrol and local law enforcement who have been stretched beyond capacity at the Texas border, and require insulated communities to help shoulder the burdens of their preferred open-border policies," Cruz's statement said.

Other locations included as new ports of entry in Cruz's legislation are: Block Island and Newport; Greenwich, Connecticut; Governors Island and Scarsdale, New York; Rehoboth Beach, Delaware; and Palo Alto, Yountville and St. Helena, California.

U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin wrote on Twitter, "These kind of bad-faith proposals do nothing to fix our broken immigration system. Get serious and quit the childish games."

Contact Gregory Bryant at gbryant@capecodonline.com. Follow him on Twitter: @GregBryantCCT.