Haiti deportations justified because of Covid, Biden homeland secretary says

[SouthBayDem]

Source: The Guardian

The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send thousands of Haitians to a home country they fled because of natural disasters and political turmoil.

Mayorkas told NBC’s Meet the Press the removals were justified because of the coronavirus pandemic, a point disputed by advocates and public health experts.

“The Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention, or CDC] has a Title 42 authority that we exercise to protect the migrants themselves, to protect the local communities, our personnel and the American public,” Mayorkas said.

“The pandemic is not behind us. Title 42 is a public health policy, not an immigration policy.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/26/haiti-deportations-covid-biden-homeland-secretary-mayorkas

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Full video of Secretary Mayorkas on Meet the Press:

Transcript: https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/news/meet-press-september-26-2021-n1280117

[abqtommy]

1. This is total bullshit.

[tenderfoot]

2. +1 nt

[The Magistrate]

4. Nailed It In One, Sir

[quakerboy]

16. It is bullshit... and a huge mistake.

Morally it is wrong.

Politically it is stupid. Why pursue policy where you are both wrong.. and going to piss off everyone on every side.

[Orrex]

3. I believe him! There's probably a whole caravan of Haitians waiting at the border!

Funny how there is never any shortage of excuses for not helping the poor, the oppressed, the traumatized, and the dislocated.

[Justice matters.]

23. Corporate umerica needs its Billions and if they don't, they'll stop buying pols.

Why can't we vaccinate these refugees while they're there??

[AZLD4Candidate]

5. when my wife gets her IR1, does this apply to her too? Will CBP use that as a reason to

deny her entry AGAIN???

Don't give CBP more excuses to deny entry for people because there is no appeal and their decision is final with no due process.

[Steelrolled]

6. This guy has to state ridiculous excuses for what is

a completely political issue. I kind of feel sorry for him. It would be so refreshing for him to say that he is carrying out the policy of the administration, which is based on the mood of the American people.

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. Bullshit

This is a made-up excuse for what they should not have done in the first place, let alone in the way they did it. DHS should be completely dissolved and its component parts returned to the departments they were taken from. If any parts were created out of whole cloth, they should be UN-created. DHS was a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 that has been allowed to remain in place and was made into something really ugly by tfg and that nazi vampire Stephen Miller.

[Steelrolled]

21. DHS is not making policy - they are simply taking orders.

[Jilly_in_VA]

28. I didn't say

they were making policy. I said it was a made up excuse. Big difference there.

[Lancero]

8. Same racist bullshit that Trump and his admin claimed.

Truly, the more things change the more they stay the same.

[George II]

10. Absolutely NO comparison between the way trump treated people at the border and the way....

Biden is treating people at the border.

[Lancero]

12. Both administrations have had issues in regards to the treatment of immigrants.

Racist bullshit is racist bullshit, no matter what party is in control.

You might consider these things to be acceptable, but I don't.

[George II]

14. trump's policies were implemented in 2017 and stood for 4 years. Biden has the double task...

...of undoing trump's ingrained policies and THEN enacting his own policies.

Four years vs. 7 months?

I never said they were acceptable, but to compare Biden's policies to trump's is unreasonable.

[Lancero]

17. "Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration's decision..."

I'd be willing to cut them some slack if they outright said "Yeah, we disagree with this but our hands are unfortunately tied due to Trump era policy" (Or something along those lines), but his administration is sending people out to defend this action.

Maybe, just maybe, overhauling these policies would go a bit quicker if the administration didn't choose to keep defending them.

[George II]

18. You haven't seen everything that Mayorkas and the administration said. Plus there's one more....

....minor factor - for the first time in decades, if not centuries, there was virtually NO transition or peaceful transfer of power - that might have allowed the changeover in policies go a bit quicker, but Biden was handicapped even before he took office.

Sorry, this bashing of Biden is unreasonable.

[Steelrolled]

22. I don't think this is bashing of Biden at all.

President Biden's policy is based on a political reality. There is not support for this type of immigration, and Biden has said to potential migrants, in so many words, "don't try coming here because we will not let you in." Now he is now sticking to his words, come hell or high water.

The Democratic party is trying its best to stay in power, and this is part of that effort. Everyone has to choose their priorities.

[AZLD4Candidate]

13. My wife was mistreated and refused entry to the country UNDER Biden's watch

[George II]

15. Using TRUMP'S legacy policies. Things don't get overhauled overnight.

[NurseJackie]

20. You are very reasonable. You have the perfect demeanor for politics.

Some have it ... Some don't.

[George II]

26. And patience...........

[betsuni]

25. You said that happened in February, about 38 days into Biden's presidency.

Thanks, Biden!

[George II]

27. On top of that trump provided almost zero assistance during the transition, an unprecedented....

....obstruction to the peaceful transition of power.

He was handicapped even before he was sworn in.

Another reason why trump was the absolute worst president in our history.

[NutmegYankee]

9. I consider it justified because the migrants didn't meet the requirements for asylum.

They blew that once they left a place they had been granted asylum to travel here.

[George II]

11. The whole thing seems kind of odd. 14,000-15,000 of one nationality show up within days....

....of each other, some with Biden/Harris t-shirts and pre-printed signs? Plus they were from an island country.

Many of them came up from Brazil, and Jason Miller spent a few weeks in Brazil (indeed, he was detained for some time) just prior to them showing up.

I think we may find out a little more about what really happened from those who remain in the US.

[LT Barclay]

19. The problem could be fixed at the source, but .... corporations. Can't cut into the profits of the

billionaires. Hold onto your hats, this is just the beginning.

[Lancero]

24. If it was corporations, they'd be in favor of it.

We're in the middle of a worker shortage afterall, they'd certainly welcome the additional labor.

Can't let immigrants in, they're all diseased. Straight up racist policy, and it's disgraceful to see another administration embracing it.

[LT Barclay]

31. What I mean is that corporations take all the land in the "developing" countries and pay slave wages

They want authoritarian governments that are corporate friendly to keep the populace in line. So we send "aid" in the form of guns, and the people flee here.
If we'd help these countries develop a health economy we could end the immigration "problem".
But I agree on the racist policies. There has to be a more humane way.

[EndlessWire]

29. The reason given is bullshit

But, where did these people come from? Did they come straight from Haiti, or did they come from Brazil? This, IMO, is some kind of scheme designed to make Biden look bad. I think that this Covid remark is in response to the optics, and not the real reason, which is a political game being played out.

Nevertheless, we should make sure that they are all vaccinated. Maybe give them an option to work in disaster relief in Haiti, thus earning a pathway back. That would be a better optic, and helpful to Haiti.

Poor Haiti, having to deal with thousands more citizens amid the devastation. I suspect that they are really from Brazil. Wouldn't we have noticed 15,000 people arriving by boat? This is probably Brazil's way for us to foot the bill of deportation of Brazil's noncitizen population. Madness.

[intheflow]

30. 100% shit of the bull.

Testing, quarantines, and vaccinations would take care of that "threat", if the administration had the will to do it.