As Townhall has covered extensively, and Julio has reported on from along the border, the Biden administration has done virtually everything in its power to throw open the U.S.-Mexico border and turn a blind eye to record-setting numbers of illegal immigrants and "got-aways."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has tried to change the rules so few individuals illegally in the country are deported, and even illegal immigrants on terror watch lists are routinely released into the United States and sometimes only apprehended and removed weeks later. The Biden administration does not have a serious border policy other than "come on in," but there's one country that the administration apparently takes a hard stance against: Cuba.
Why Biden would seek to allow immigrants and asylum seekers from basically every other country into the United States along our nation's border with Mexico but turn away those fleeing communism in search of freedom, safety, and the American dream is yet another damning cognitively dissonant policy from the current tenant in the White House.
As The New York Post reported this week, several dozen migrants on rickety boats from Cuba were turned back near the Florida Keys last week:
Boats carrying a total of 45 Cubans were spotted by civilians beginning late Wednesday about 12 miles south of Boot Key, according to the US Coast Guard 7th District on Sunday.
Three other “rustic” vessels carrying more migrants headed to the US were then intercepted by Coast Guard Cutter Charles Sexton’s crew on Friday, including one about 17 miles south of Long Key.
Photos released by the Coast Guard Sunday showed the migrants tightly huddled on small wooden boats, including one that appeared to be extremely tattered.
And that's not the first time the Biden administration's guidelines have seen Cubans trying to make landfall in the U.S. to seek asylum and a better life sent back. The Miami Herald reported that "the Coast Guard returned 52 people to Cuba after stopping five rustic boats and one inflatable vessel off the Florida Keys" last Tuesday, just a few of the thousands that have been stopped this year.
"Since Oct. 1 of last year, Coast Guard crews have stopped 2,464 Cubans," The Herald noted, the largest exodus from Cuba since 2016. But the number of Cubans turned away off the U.S. coast is far less than the 239,416 illegal immigrants encountered by border agents in May alone, not to mention the more than 300,000 "got-aways" who have illegally entered the U.S. without being apprehended so far this fiscal year.
The reports that more than 90 Cuban refugees had been turned back to their island nation by the Biden administration in just one week comes as the president tried to brag about his work to support refugees. The official POTUS account tweeted an observance of World Refugee Day saying immigrants "enrich our country."
Today, on World Refugee Day, I join people around the world in recognizing the strength, resilience, and humanity of the millions of refugees forced to flee violence, persecution, and war.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 20, 2022
Those who find refuge in America — a proud nation of immigrants — enrich our country.
Well, it appears Biden's stated commitment to refugees and his belief immigrants make America better don't apply to Cubans living under stifling communism without freedom or opportunity. So while a record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants stream across the southern border — including convicted criminals and individuals on terror watch lists — refugees in rickety boats and flotsam rafts get sent straight back where they came from.
Could it be that Biden doesn't want to allow Cubans because they reject big government and embrace individual liberty — two positions that more often align them with Republicans than Democrats?
Mayorkas doesn’t want Cubans because they reject communism and won’t vote Democrat. https://t.co/D40dBRG7gh
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) June 20, 2022