In an emotional farewell Friday, the roughly 50 Venezuelan migrants flown unannounced to Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday in what critics derided as a cruel political stunt by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis left the island for temporary housing on Cape Cod.

Just before 10 a.m., one large bus and two smaller ones from the Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority pulled in front of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church to a crowd of families waiting in the driveway with backpacks and suitcases.

The teary-eyed migrants hugged volunteers, took selfies, and gave the church -- which had doubled as an emergency shelter for them -- a round of applause before embarking on the next stretch of their journey to Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne, which Governor Charlie Baker's office said Friday was being offered as temporary shelter.