Sens. Scott and Rubio Call for Plan to Confront Mass Migration From Haiti

Residents flee their homes to escape clashes between armed gangs in the Carrefour-Feuilles district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Aug. 15, 2023. The Canadian Press/AP-Odelyn Joseph

Two senators from Florida, Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), are asking President Joe Biden for his plan to prevent and stop a possible influx of Haitians into the United States amid political and social unrest in the Caribbean country.

In a letter dated March 15 to President Biden, Mr. Scott and Mr. Rubio raised their concerns about the recent humanitarian and security crisis in Haiti. They warned that the current open-border policy could lead to mass migration from Haiti into the United States and have a “direct negative impact on American families” across the country.

“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,” the letter reads. “We must consider this danger due to the numerous reports of gangs committing jailbreaks in Haiti and releasing thousands of dangerous criminals.”

Haiti fell into chaos as the government declared a state of emergency earlier this month when fighting escalated between government forces and criminal gangs. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was in Kenya seeking to seal a deal for a long-delayed U.N.-backed security mission to restore order in the country, which has been grappling with gang violence since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

In the letter, the senators condemned President Biden and his administration for the ongoing Southern border crisis.

“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 senators cited FBI Director Christopher Wray’s March 11 hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee to raise the alarm about risks to Americans due to the administration’s open border policy.

Mr. Wray warned during his testimony on Capitol Hill that the surge in illegal crossings along the southern border threatens Americans’ safety.

“From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border,” he said.

Mr. Wray also warned that the FBI is “very concerned” about a particular human smuggling network whose overseas facilitators have ties to ISIS. The FBI director said the bureau has observed a heightened terrorist threat level, with foreign terrorist groups calling for attacks against the United States to a degree that the FBI hasn’t seen “in a long time.”

The senators then asked about President Biden and his administration’s plans to prevent mass migration from Haiti. They also asked whether the administration conducts vetting and background checks on Haitians who arrive in the United States before making admission decisions or detaining those considered inadmissible because of criminal histories or ties to terrorist groups.

Florida Prepares

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed on March 13 that he committed significant resources to prepare for potential mass migration into his state.

Florida congressman Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) also raised his concerns during a March 12 House Armed Services Committee hearing. He predicted that what is now a trickle leaving the island “will accelerate” in the coming weeks.

South Florida’s Broward and Palm Beach counties have been prime destinations for Haitians, many arriving illegally, for years, he said. Mr. Gaetz noted that “they don’t disperse throughout the country; they stay in southeast Florida.”

Guantanamo Bay

On March 12, a top Pentagon official said during testimony that the United States has no plans to send troops to Haiti and also has no current plans to activate its “maritime mass migration” protocol to allow the Coast Guard and Navy to interdict illegal immigrant flotillas and return them to their point of origin or a port in a third nation.

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.

As Haiti deals with a continuing gang war and humanitarian crisis, some of its citizens are fleeing the country by boat to the United States.

The Coast Guard interdicted a vessel of 65 illegal Haitian immigrants near Great Inagua, Bahamas, on March 7 before repatriating them back to Haiti.

Jacob Burg and John Haughey contributed to this report.