A group of Florida lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration to authorize the Navy to patrol the waters off the U.S. coast in anticipation of a ‘mass migration’ from Haiti.
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, together with Republicans Anna Paulina Luna and Daniel Webster, urged President Biden ‘an anticipated mass migration from Haiti aliens en route to the United States’ through Florida, which would then grant the Navy authorization to ‘conduct maritime interdictions and repatriation of Haitians.’
According to U.S. code, when the president declares a national emergency the Navy can assist the Coast Guard in sending migrants back to their home country before they reach U.S. soil.
GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, together with Republicans Anna Paulina Luna and Daniel Webster, urged President Biden ‘an anticipated mass migration from Haiti aliens en route to the United States’ through Florida, which would then grant the Navy authorization to ‘conduct maritime interdictions and repatriation of Haitians’
‘What are we doing to prepare for that wave, and to ensure that these people are not paroled into the United States, as the administration has done with people on the southern border, but instead, are repatriated back at the dock at Port au Prince?’ Gaetz asked during an Armed Services hearing last week.
Rebecca Zimmerman, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, said the U.S. is not yet seeing ‘large numbers’ of Haitians trying to cross into Florida from its coasts, but ‘we are alert to that possibility.’
‘I think you’re right, that the driving conditions in Haiti could very well press more people,’ she went on.
Gaetz said he’s spoken with the Coast Guard and what they need is more naval vessels to back them up.
Haiti is about 600 miles southeast of Miami, and boats of immigrants fleeing the country are commonplace in Florida.
The ongoing violence in Haiti, where gangs control around 80 percent of the nation’s capital of Port-au-Prince, has left around half the population, around 5.5 million people, in dire need of humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N.
People who were detained for deportation to Haiti stand inside a police truck on the border bridge that connects Dajabon, Dominican Republic with Haiti, Monday, March 18, 2024
People who were detained for deportation to Haiti stand inside a police truck on the border bridge that connects Dajabon, Dominican Republic with Haiti, Monday, March 18, 2024
The United Nations children’s agency chief said the situation in Haiti is the ‘worst in decades’ as millions face famine amid the swell of looting and violence.
Seven bodies were reportedly found in Petion Ville in the Ouest Department of Haiti on Monday after an overnight shooting.
UNICEF said one of its containers holding ‘essential items for maternal, neonatal, and child survival, including resuscitators and related equipment’ was looted in the capital of Port-au-Prince’s main port on Saturday.
The unrest has further cut some of the country’s most vulnerable from basic supplies, coming ‘at a critical moment when children need them the most,’ the agency said.
That same day, the Guatemala’s Foreign Ministry said the offices of its honorary consul in Haiti was ransacked, but didn’t give any details of damage or thefts, nor did it say who was responsible.
A body lies inside a taxi, left, and another on the ground behind, after an overnight shooting in the Petion Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, March 18, 2024
‘It’s like a scene out of Mad Max. Honestly, that’s what it seems like.
‘Gangs, vigilantes responding to the gangs,’ UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell told CBS News.
‘Many, many people there are suffering from serious hunger and malnutrition and we’re not able to get enough aid to them.’
Gangs have raged through Haiti in recent weeks, attacking key institutions and shutting down the main international airport. The gangs, led by a man nicknamed ‘Barbeque’ have risen to power without clear leadership in the country and the prime minister’s resignation.
Approximately 1.4 million Haitians are on the verge of famine, and more than 4 million require food aid, sometimes eating only once a day or nothing at all, aid groups said.
‘Haiti is facing a protractive and mass hunger,’ Jean-Martin Bauer, Haiti director for the United Nations’ World Food Program, told The Associated Press.
‘We have supplies for weeks. I’m saying weeks, not months, that has me terrified.’
The country’s top gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbeque’ Cherizier has threatened the families of political leaders who would support a planned transition council replacing outgoing PM Ariel Henry.
A man throws garbage next to the body of a murdered person, in Port-au-Prince on Friday
Looting and overall violence has further cut some of the country’s most vulnerable from basic supplies
Gangs have raged through Haiti in recent weeks, attacking key institutions and shutting down the main international airport
Haiti Libre reported the Haitian National Police raided Barbeque’s territory on Friday as part of a strategy to unblock roads, seize firearms and facilitate the free movement of citizens.
More anti-terrorism U.S. Marines have been dispatched to Haiti to beef up security at the American embassy 24 hours after the country’s prime minister announced his resignation amid mounting chaos.
The elite Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team (F.A.S.T) was sent in as bedlam continued and after top gang leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier called for a ‘bloody revolution’.
Ariel Henry stepped down as prime minister on Tuesday as the Caribbean nation was pushed to the brink of civil war and bodies were left strewn in the streets.