Republican legislators from Florida have called on President Joe Biden to declare “an anticipated mass migration” of Haitian aliens en route to the United States amid social unrest in the Caribbean country.
The president’s declaration would enable the U.S. Navy to support Florida’s efforts to conduct maritime interdictions and interceptions of aliens from Haiti and repatriate them, according to the letter.
The lawmakers also urged President Biden “to engage the necessary assets” to conduct maritime interdictions and interceptions of Haitians and repatriate them to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
The move comes as Haitians try to escape the worsening gang violence, political turmoil, and humanitarian crisis in their home country.
During the House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, Mr. Gaetz voiced “deep concern” about the potential wave of people coming from Haiti to Florida and warned that the migration will accelerate.
“So 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?” he asked.
Rebecca Zimmerman, the assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs, replied that at the moment, the United States has “not yet seen large numbers what we would characterize as maritime mass migration.”
“We are alert to that possibility,” Ms. Zimmerman said. “I think you’re right, that the driving conditions in Haiti could very well press more people.
“So, we’ve recently approved some additional assistance that we can provide to the Coast Guard, I think that that has now fully been approved.”
The governor also said that no other state has done more to supplement the U.S. Coast Guard’s “under-resourced” interdiction efforts.
“We must consider this danger due to the numerous reports of gangs committing jailbreaks in Haiti and releasing thousands of dangerous criminals,” they stated in a March 15 letter to President Biden.
The senators asked about President Biden and his administration’s plans to prevent mass migration from Haiti.
“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,” they wrote.
Haiti fell into chaos as the government declared a state of emergency earlier this month when fighting escalated between government forces and criminal gangs.
Roughly half of the Caribbean country, including 80 percent of the capital of Port-au-Prince, is under the control of heavily armed gangs, according to the International Rescue Commission.
The ongoing violence also prompted the United States to deploy an elite team of marines to protect the American embassy. The U.S. Southern Command said that its fleet anti-terrorism security team has been dispatched to beef up embassy security in the capital.
