Ice is common in Martha’s Vineyard, that elite playground for the rich and famous. But normally, ice is swirled in buckets to cool champagne and splash into bourbon. But this summer, a new kind of ice landed on the island. It’s unexpected and, it would seem, most unwelcome in the playground of the rich and famous. 

In the past month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have arrested at least six people on the Massachusetts islands, including on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. The arrests are just a warmup for a broader plan to catch illegal immigrants suspected of serious crimes in Obama’s paradise. 

Toby Brown, the chair of the Nantucket GOP, said people are concerned about violent illegal immigrants. He explained that the issue is that there is no way of knowing someone’s background if they are in the country illegally. Brown also pointed out that most immigrants in the insulated island community are “good,” even those there illegally. However, he warns that people in the island communities are worried about individuals who fled their home countries to escape punishment for violent crimes. 

On September 3, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Boston said they arrested 24-year-old Warley Neto, an illegal immigrant from Brazil, on Martha’s Vineyard in late August. Neto entered the U.S. illegally through the Texas-Mexico border in 2018 and is now facing five charges for raping a minor in Massachusetts. 

For Neto, it was strike number three. ERO Boston requested three separate ICE detainers for Neto. After the first detainer, he was jailed but released early. After his release, he assaulted another child.  

It’s a disgusting theme for these illegals. On September 10, ERO Boston arrested a 28-year-old Salvadoran illegal immigrant Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo for raping a child under 14. Aldana-Arevalo was a got-away with no official record of when he came to the United States. 

The despicable crimes continued, with ERO Boston officials announcing the September 10 arrest of Salvadoran national Elmer Sola. Sola faces 11 counts of child sex crimes against a child, including three counts of aggravated rape and eight counts of indecent assault and battery on a minor. Again, the child was under 14 years old. 

Sola is another “got-away,” with no record of any attempt to pass through the border legally. 

Illegal Brazilian immigrant Gean Do Amaral Belafronte was arrested on September 11 for assaulting a “person 14 years or older.” Belafronte was legally allowed into the United States in 2018 but left after violating the terms of his “parole.” He returned illegally at an unknown time, officials said, and sexually assaulted a Nantucket resident. 

Massachusetts has several “sanctuary cities,” where local police don’t always work with federal authorities on detainer requests. 

A report from June by the Center for Immigration Studies estimated that around 355,000 “illegal and inadmissible” migrants live in Massachusetts, with about 50,000 new arrivals since 2021. The report also mentioned that 10,000 of these migrants are minors, and 8,500 of them are unaccompanied. 

Two years ago, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent two planes with illegal immigrants to Nantucket as part of a program to relocate them to sanctuary areas. The governor’s communications director, Taryn Fenske, said that states like Massachusetts, New York, and California can better care for these individuals. She explained that these states encourage illegal immigration by being called “sanctuary states” and by supporting the Biden administration’s open border policies. 

Local authorities on the island did not receive any notice before the migrants were dropped off at Martha’s Vineyard airport on September 14. Local officials, organizations, and residents rushed to help the newcomers for a photo op and talking points, then quietly shipped them out of sight about 30 miles away from the elite two days later. Four of the illegals, all related to each other, did return to the island. 

Now that the illegal immigrant crime crisis has reached the estates of the high and mighty, will anything change? Most likely not. Illegal immigrants provide two things – a chance for the elite to show they are sympathetic to the plight of border jumpers and low-cost workers for their palatial properties. And it only costs them the safety of their kids.