The Biden family arrived on Nantucket on Tuesday for the final Presidential Thanksgiving, despite a rash of immigration crimes that have made this year's popular holiday destination.
Air Force One touched down at Nantucket Memorial Airport just before 6 p.m., and a small crowd watched as the presidential motorcade whisked away the first family. nantucket current Reported.
The president's arrival created a lively atmosphere on the island during a normally quiet holiday week. Hotels in the island's historic downtown area were packed with White House reporters and Secret Service agents, local media reported.
More than a dozen Massachusetts state troopers arrived on motorcycles via the Steamship Corporation ferry on Monday, and vehicles and equipment have been offloaded by a series of Air Force C-17s over the past three days. More than 200 turkey dinners will be prepared for Secret Service agents at the Fairgrounds Restaurant.
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President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and Ashley Biden leave Nantucket Bookworks after lunch on November 25, 2022 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Biden is spending the Thanksgiving holiday with his family in Nantucket. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
For the past three years, the Biden family has stayed at a property owned by private equity billionaire David Rubenstein overlooking Nantucket Harbor, and this year's visit continues a 40-year tradition of vacationing on the island. Current newspaper reported.
The visit to Nantucket comes after a large number of illegal immigrants were intercepted on Nantucket by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents earlier this fall.
Five immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador were detained over a 48-hour period during an ICE removal operation in Boston in September, Fox News Digital previously reported. Since August, authorities have arrested at least eight illegal immigrants charged with various criminal charges on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
On September 10, Brian Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, a 28-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, was charged with one count of rape of a child with a 10-year age difference and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
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Secret Service agents walk past President Joe Biden as he visits a store in the island's downtown historic district with relatives on Nov. 25, 2023, on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons said in a press release at the time of her arrest that Aldana Arevalo “represents a grave danger to children in Massachusetts communities.” According to the Current, authorities said the victim was only 12 years old.
Elmer Sola, another immigrant charged with 11 child sex crimes that Lyons said occurred on Nantucket that day, Aldana Arevalo and Elmer Sola, handcuffed, quietly sat on the ferry. He was taken to the mainland.
Sola was arraigned on Aug. 14, charged and released on an ankle monitor on the condition that he stay away from the victim and the victim's family, according to the Current newspaper. However, nine days later he returned to court on suspicion of violating pretrial conditions of his release.
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Operation Removal Boston arrested Brian Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, a 28-year-old Salvadoran citizen who was in the country illegally, and charged him with numerous sex crimes against children on Nantucket Island. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
On September 11, agents returned to this iconic vacation spot to arrest Brazilian illegal immigrant Gon do Amaral Belafronte and Guatemalan illegal immigrant Félix Alberto Pérez Gómez. Both men committed sex crimes against Nantucket residents, Lyons said.
Belafronte entered the United States legally in 2018, but left of his own accord in 2021 following assault charges. He illegally reentered the country and a warrant was issued for his arrest in March. After his arraignment, Nantucket District Court released him on $500 cash bail or $5,000 surety bond, according to court records and Boston ERO.
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ERO Boston announced Thursday that it arrested Angel Gabriel delas-Mejia, 30, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador and member of MS-13, on September 12th. (ICE ERO-Boston)
Ángel Gabriel delas Mejia, a well-known MS-13 gang member in El Salvador, was taken into custody by authorities on the island on September 12th. The Lions said Delas Mejia is “representative.”[ed] This poses a serious threat to Nantucket residents. ”
Delas Mejia was arrested in July at Discovery Playground on Old South Road. Nantucket police said he left crying children at the scene while he was “intoxicated, swearing, arms outstretched, and yelling, distracting all civilians at the scene.” I wrote that. He and the child's mother were reportedly arguing over who would take the child home. the current. In August, he was arrested again on charges of assault and battery on a family member.
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Elmer Sola is charged with 11 counts of sex crimes against children. Specifically, there are three counts of aggravated rape of a child and eight counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age. (ICE – ERO Boston)
Toby Brown, chairman of the Nantucket Island Republican Party and a 30-year Nantucket resident, was one of the few people on Nantucket to publicly express concerns about illegal immigration following the arrest.
“We need to have this conversation and not just keep doing things like this…If you're concerned in any way, you don't have to keep holding on to the idea that you're a racist… People just need to not be afraid to speak up,” Brown previously told FOX News Digital. “The island became even more worried when Kevin Spacey was indicted again in 2016.” [than the recent sex crimes allegedly perpetrated by illegal immigrants]” he said.
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Felix Alberto Perez Gomez, 41, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, was charged with sex crimes against Nantucket residents. (ICE – ERO Boston)
”[The ICE arrests were] “It’s not surprising to us. If you follow the court reports over the last year or so, there have been quite a few violent arrests… It may be surprising that ICE has come out here, but they It's not surprising that we had to do that,” Brown said. Come out here. ”
Brown said most immigrants on the idyllic island off the coast of Cape Cod are good, active members of the community, including those in the country illegally. Many of her friends and colleagues are immigrants, she said. But many residents remain concerned about those who may be fleeing a violent past in their home countries.
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“We owe a debt to the immigrants who came here, whether legal or illegal,” he said. “Many of them just want a better life, and they come here and do the best they can. They're raising their children here, and they don't want crimes like this. I’m not here.”
“They didn't come to Nantucket to live like they did in El Salvador or Mexico or wherever they came from,” he added.
