Sens. Scott, Rubio Call For Plan To Handle Influx Of Haitian Migrants
Florida Republican Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio have called on the Biden administration to produce a plan to deal with a potential influx of Haitian migrants into the United States as political and social unrest intensifies in the Caribbean country.
In a Friday letter to Biden, the senators suggested that the administration's current open-border policy could lead to mass migration from Haiti into the United States, and have a "direct negative impact on American families."
"Floridians and the rest of the American public will not tolerate your administration again opening the floodgates for countless, unvetted foreign nationals to stream into our country, putting our national security at grave risk and creating untold public safety threats for our communities," Scott and Rubio wrote. "We must consider this danger due to the numerous reports of gangs committing jailbreaks in Haiti and releasing thousands of dangerous criminals."
Earlier this month, Haiti fell into chaos and a state of emergency was declared amid fighting between criminal gangs and government forces - with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry stealing away to Kenya to negotiate a deal for a long-delayed UN-backed security mission (to 'secure the children,' we're sure).
The Senators' letter slams Biden for the ongoing crisis at the Southern border, the Epoch Times reports.
"Since you took office, your administration has allowed more than 8 million people to pour across our southern border, including untold numbers of foreign nationals that you have released into the interior of the country," they wrote.
"You create a magnet for illegal immigration here, appease evil regimes, and put the American people at risk, while further expecting taxpayers to pay for the unrest, humanitarian crises and mass border crossings that result."
The letter cites FBI Director Christopher Wray's March 11 comments before the Senate Intelligence Committee in which he raised the alarm about risks to Americans thanks to the Biden administration's open-border policies.
According to Wray, the surge in illegal crossings at the southern border threatens the safety of Americans.
"From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border," said Wray, who added that the FBI is "very concerned" about a specific human smuggling operation with ties to ISIS.
The letter then turns to the potential for mass migration from Haiti, and whether the Biden administration conducts vetting and background checks on Haitians arriving in the US.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) also raised concerns during a House Armed Services Committee meeting on March 12th, in which he predicted that the current 'trickle' of people leaving Haiti will "accelerate" in the coming weeks - for which south Broward and Palm Beach Counties have been prime destinations for people from the island nation. According to Gaetz "they don’t disperse throughout the country; they stay in southeast Florida."
Meanwhile, a top Pentagon official on March 12 said during testimony that the US has no plans to send troops to Haiti, nor activate the Coast Guard and Navy's ability to interdict illegal immigrant flotillas and return them to their point of origin or a port in a 3rd nation.
Guantanamo Bay?
On March 14, during a press call, White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said the Biden administration is considering using a naval facility at Guantanamo Bay to process and repatriate illegal immigrants coming from Haiti.
The naval station at Guantanamo Bay has been used in the past for processing and repatriating illegal Haitian immigrants, and it “remains an option” for the future if maritime migration trends continue to worsen, according to Mr. Kirby. -Epoch Times
On March 7, the Coast Guard interdicted a vessel carrying 65 Haitian immigrants near Inagua, Bahamas, before repatriating them back to Haiti.
