The Biden administration is reportedly considering temporarily holding immigrants from Haiti in a third country or at a facility in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
According to an internal planning document shared by two U.S. officials with NBC News, an influx of Haitian migrants will soon make its way to the United States. Reportedly, The White House National Security Council asked the Department of Homeland Security how many migrants would require the U.S. to designate a third country to hold and process them. If immigrants overwhelm the “lily pad country,” Haitians will be required to be taken to Guantanamo.
Guantanamo has a Migrant Operations Center that holds foreign nationals intercepted by the Coast Guard in the Caribbean. NBC pointed out that it is not part of the prison for terrorist suspects.
A spokesperson from the NSC told NBC that the U.S. “remains committed to supporting the people of Haiti,” adding that “the U.S. government always does contingency planning out of an abundance of caution, and for a wide range of potential scenarios. These contingencies for migration existed long before the Biden-Harris administration.”
A spokesperson for DHS said the agency “continues to closely monitor the situation in Haiti and there are longstanding contingency plans ready in the event of a surge in maritime migration.”
In an interview with “Fox & Friends First,” Florida Rep. Greg Steube (R) said the Biden administration is coming up with these policies to keep the U.S. border open.
“I don’t understand why this administration just can’t follow current law and secure our border and return these individuals to their host countries,” he said in the interview.
“Haiti is descending absolutely into chaos,” he added. “Their president was murdered. Gangs have taken over. Another earthquake. Another tropical storm. And, I was just with the vice admiral of the Coast Guard. They’ve had a 300 percent increase in interceptions of people trying to flee by boat.”
Townhall covered in July 2021 that Jovenal Moise, the president of Haiti, was assassinated inside his home. Reportedly, a group of Colombian nationals are alleged to be responsible for his murder.
Last week, Eric Jean Baptiste, a leader of a Haitian political party, was murdered in an alleged gang attack. A party official said that “his assassination shows we do not have leadership in this country,” according to The Washington Post. In August, gangs killed a former Haitian senator, Yvon Buissereth.
Last year, 10,000 illegal immigrants, the majority of whom were Haitian nationals, were packed under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border. As the migrants were illegally crossing, left-wing media outlets spread the false narrative that the U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback were whipping the migrants.
From @elpasotimes: As the Haitians tried to climb onto the U.S. side of the river Sunday afternoon, a border agent shouted: "Let's go! Get out now! Back to Mexico!"
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) September 20, 2021
The agent swung his whip menacingly, charging his horse toward the men in the river.https://t.co/DejaoSQKwI
Border Patrol agents are whipping Haitian migrants at the US-Mexico border in Texas.https://t.co/9sFNCds7Ur
— VICE News (@VICENews) September 20, 2021
Border patrol is mounted on horseback rounding up Haitian refugees with whips.
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) September 20, 2021
This is unfathomable cruelty towards people fleeing disaster and political ruin. The administration must stop this. pic.twitter.com/BSjT91NSj0
In reality, the agents on horseback were holding their reins. A source within Border Patrol explained to Townhall that agents spin their reins as a deterrent for migrants coming too close to prevent them from getting trampled and killed.
"Agents use their reins for a lot of reasons. Primarily it's used to steer the horse, but agents will also spin them sometimes to deter people from getting too close to the horse. If they get too close, the horse can step on them, breaking bones or causing other injuries. Agents also need to maintain control of their reins so they don't lose control of the horse, which can cause injuries to immigrants, the agents, and the horses.”
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told Townhall that “we do not strike people” with reins.
“You’ll notice none of the pictures show any person being struck by the reins,” he said, adding that, “but of course, that’s not going to be the story.”
Months later, Leah covered how the Biden administration claimed that the Haitian migrants were subject to expulsion, but many were released into the U.S. on a “very, very large scale.”