How quickly were illegal immigrants removed from Martha's Vinyard in September 2022?
Executive summary
Approximately 50 Venezuelan migrants arrived on Martha’s Vineyard on September 14, 2022, and were moved off the island within days—by September 16 most had been transported to a temporary shelter at Joint Base Cape Cod or onward to the mainland—contradicting claims that they were “deported” or removed from the United States within 24 hours [1] [2] [3].
1. Arrival and immediate sheltering: what happened on September 14
Two chartered flights carrying roughly 50 migrants landed at Martha’s Vineyard Airport on the afternoon of September 14, 2022; volunteers and local officials worked overnight to set up emergency shelter at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and to provide food, clothing and basic medical care [1] [4] [5].
2. How quickly they left the island: moved to Cape Cod within days
State and local reporting show the group departed the island within 48 hours: by September 16 many boarded buses and ferries to a temporary shelter on Joint Base Cape Cod, where Massachusetts officials had arranged services and lodging, and by September 19 some had already moved on to be with family or to other locations on the mainland [2] [6] [7].
3. What “removed” meant — not deportation but relocation and continued U.S. presence
Multiple fact-checks and contemporaneous reports make a critical legal distinction: the migrants were not deported or expelled from the United States; they were relocated from Martha’s Vineyard to a state-arranged military base and remain in the U.S., and federal deportation requires federal immigration authorities, not state or National Guard action [3] [6].
4. Disputed claims and political context: timing used as talking point
Republican officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis, highlighted the flights as part of a broader program to transport migrants to sanctuary jurisdictions and have emphasized voluntariness and consent paperwork; critics and some fact-checkers dispute aspects of that characterization and note the episode was used as a political stunt in the 2022 campaign season [8] [9] [10]. DeSantis’s later claim that migrants were “deported” within 24 hours was specifically rated false by fact-checkers, who cite the documented relocation to Cape Cod and continued U.S. presence [3].
5. Legal aftermath, investigations and alternate narratives about timing
Following the flights, local authorities and advocates pursued legal and administrative avenues: a class-action lawsuit was filed by migrants, Bexar County (Texas) officials opened inquiries, and later certifications and legal assistance (including efforts around U visas) suggested some migrants were treated as victims of crimes related to their transport—actions that underscore the complexity of who decided timing and movement in the days after arrival [8] [7] [11].
6. Reporting gaps and what the sources do not settle
Available reporting establishes a clear headline timeline—arrival on Sept. 14 and relocation from the island to Cape Cod within roughly two days (and further dispersal over the following week)—but sources do not provide a minute-by-minute or individual-by-individual log of departures, nor do they fully resolve disputes over what migrants were told mid-flight versus what paperwork they signed; those details remain contested between state officials, migrants’ accounts, and investigative follow-ups [9] [8].
7. Bottom line: answer to the central question
How quickly were the migrants removed from Martha’s Vineyard? They were not removed from the United States, and they were moved off Martha’s Vineyard within days—most notably from their church shelter to Joint Base Cape Cod by September 16—so the claim of immediate deportation or 24‑hour removal is demonstrably false according to contemporaneous reporting and fact-checks [2] [3] [6].