Not so long ago, Americans were engaged in debate about whether we have a real problem with border security and illegal immigration. Despite alarming data and lived experiences, we were assured by the usual suspects among activists, politicians, and media figures that the problem only existed in the twisted minds of fringe xenophobes.

Today there is no one who can make that case with a straight face and no doubt that the problem is real. Indeed, it is an existential threat to the country. How do we know? Because wealthy elites who once denied the problem are now among those complaining the loudest.

The Massachusetts islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard have been in the news lately, and not because of their spectacular beachfront properties. The residents of these exclusive vacation destinations are voicing their fears and frustrations as their communities have seen six arrests of illegal aliens in one month for sex crimes, primarily against minors. One of those arrested is reportedly a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.

Erik Evans, a 31-year resident of Nantucket, posted a viral video on social media to vent concerns about rising crime and runaway illegal immigration on the island.

“I wonder who’s hiring these people?” he said. “Do they do background checks on them? How are these past five people that have gotten arrested, that are rapists and murderers working here, and walking through our grocery store, and passing by us at the gas station? It’s not what Nantucket once was.”

Americans who have been living with the negative consequences of bad immigration policies for years might want to respond with the words of Bruce Willis’s Detective John McClane from Die Hard: “Welcome to the party, pal!”

To address some of Evans’ questions, background checks on illegal aliens are often difficult to perform, as many aliens come from countries with poor record-keeping. There is often little to no information available. The sheer numbers of those coming here illegally makes it all but impossible to properly vet them, even if their countries do have detailed records. As to how criminal aliens are walking among the citizenry, a sanctuary state like Massachusetts and its sanctuary towns refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, which means that aliens who should have been deported for previous crimes are free to cause future mayhem.  

Up until just recently, residents of places like Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard only experienced the illegal immigration crisis by reading about it in the news. Both islands have long been exclusive playgrounds for the super-wealthy, with median home prices above $2 million. The Obamas, the Clintons, and many other celebrities own mansions on Martha’s Vineyard, and Joe Biden has been a frequent vacationer on Nantucket.

That kind of exclusivity, combined with fabulous wealth and Massachusetts’ far left-leaning politics, has created an unusual combination of anti-borders idealism and not-in-my-backyard snobbery. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew about 50 illegal migrants to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022, a vocal number of Vineyard residents welcomed the migrants—at least while the television cameras rolled. Almost all of the migrants were quickly relocated, however, to a military base in Cape Cod less than 48 hours later. If “immigration makes us stronger,” as the anti-borders bumper sticker says, why the rush to get rid of the new arrivals?

There was a rank hypocrisy in the critics of DeSantis’s actions. If flying migrants to the Vineyard was wrong, those critics were strangely silent when the Biden administration engaged in the same practice on a much larger scale, sending migrants on commercial flights under cover of darkness to numerous rural and Rust Belt communities without getting any permission from local authorities.   

In the pre-Biden years, wealthy enclaves would be largely protected from the harmful effects of illegal immigration. Thanks to the Biden administration’s unprecedented border stampede and the growth of sanctuary policies, the volume of border crossers is now so high that the problem has seeped into virtually every community in America.

It is tragic that innocent people have been victimized on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard by those who should not be in the country. To residents there who had engaged in anti-borders virtue signaling while hoping escape the fallout in elite zip codes, the message is clear: You’re in it with the rest of us now. Support border security and immigration enforcement or watch your once-idyllic community deteriorate like the rest of the country has been doing for years.