MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass. — State leaders, local volunteers and attorneys are trying to figure out next steps for the 50 or so asylum seekers who were flown Wednesday — some without their knowledge — to Martha’s Vineyard, a small island with few resources to help them.

Why it matters: Roughly 50 people are packed into the small parish house near St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown, after landing at the Martha’s Vineyard airport.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has claimed responsibility for sending the planes to the island, but nonprofit leaders and some migrants say they came from San Antonio, Texas. A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Abbott was not involved in sending them.

Zoom out: The ordeal is the latest escalation in the GOP’s standoff with President Biden over immigration policies. Republican governors have moved migrants from border states to so-called sanctuary cities to try to force their Democratic counterparts to grapple with social safety-net issues.

One asylum seeker, Katiuska from Caracas, Venezuela, says she was told the group was going to New York City. She was surprised to learn her plane was landing on Martha’s Vineyard. Others said they believed they were heading to Boston, NPR reports.

What they’re saying: Katiuska’s husband, 35-year-old Pedro Torrealba, said he’ll work any job he can find in the U.S. He said he worked two jobs in Venezuela and still didn’t have enough money to feed his family of four.

The couple spent two months traveling through Central America and the Mexico-U.S. border.

State Sen. Julian Cyr, who represents the Cape and Islands, described Martha’s Vineyard as “a welcoming community. We’re going to work hard to welcome these folks.”

Zoom in: Volunteers Thursday morning brought food, water, diapers and clothing to the church, which was bustling with families, state legislators, interpreters and other volunteers — a Herculean effort that the community can’t sustain long-term, Belcastro said.

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said attorneys are trying to figure out how to handle appointments that migrants have with federal immigration authorities in the cities they were supposed to go.

What’s next: Volunteers expect to keep the asylum seekers at the church for at least another day before they are taken to another part of Massachusetts, Belcastro says.

Go deeper: ACLU calls for investigation of Operation Lone Star