WEBVTT

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the biden administration has hit a record low when it

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comes to resettling refugees as part of the U.

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S. Refugee admission program. According to the State

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Department, 11,411 refugees have been resettled. That's even

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less than president trump's low point On the campaign trail

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, Biden pledged to resettle as many as 125,000 people

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a year through the program. Now, according to

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Hill Reporter Rafael Bernal, the White House and the

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State Department face another challenge in regards to US policy

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toward Haiti as pressure builds on Biden to deliver a

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diplomatic breakthrough for Haiti's civil society. This comes after

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the former U. S. Special envoy to Haiti

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resigned after learning about the deportation of Haitian migrants on

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the news without any consultation from the administration. He'll

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reporter Rafael Bernal joins us now to discuss further thanks

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for being with us. Hey, thanks for having

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me. So what is the situation right now?

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Obviously, you know, immigration with such an important

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with such important issue for the Democratic coalition, the

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people who put biden in power were very critical of

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what was going on under the trump administration, but

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it doesn't look like the situation has improved much.

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So, I mean, it's basically a case of

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over promising and under delivering uh the Department of Homeland

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Security has control over most aspects of of immigration and

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and and the immigration system of the United States has

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been sort of chipped away at for for decades now

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, making it more difficult for people to come legally

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sort of, you know, making smaller the avenues

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of legal migration toward the United States and making the

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punishment for illegal migration or immigration, uh, you

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know, more expensive, more and more difficult for

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people to manage. So when the biden administration comes

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in and says, well, we're going to liberalize

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immigration. It's not just that they're there trying to

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reform DHS from where trump had tweaked it to be

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very aggressive and very enforcement heavy. It's that DHS

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as an institution over, it's nearly 20 years of

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existence has been sort of trumpian institution or a proto

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trumpian institution before trumpism was a thing. Yeah.

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Are they are the Haitian immigrants that came, you

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know, and then ended up being deported, Were

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they being treated any differently than let's say those coming

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in from latin America. Well, the accusations are

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that they were a lot of, there's a lot

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of talk about how black black migrants from Latin America

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from the rest of Latin America or from Haiti.

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And this is very clear with black or white migrants

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from CUBA, they're treated more harshly. And it's

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, You know, it's not obviously an institutional go

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after the black migrants policy. And I don't know

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of any administration in the 20th and 21st century or

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late 20th and 21st century that has had such a

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policy, but, but in the end they are

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treated more harshly. And, and I mean,

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we saw that in, in RIO, um,

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whipping with the horse reins and that, that sort

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of thing that would have been unacceptable to be fair

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, it was a very unique situation for the Border

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Patrol. They don't usually confront such large groups at

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once. But obviously the result of the decisions made

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by by border Patrol leadership on that scene were it

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was a negative, it was a negative result and

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further strengthen the idea that black migrants are treated worse

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than other migrants. Tulsi Gabbert made an appearance on

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Fox News where she blamed biden's open border policy for

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the surge at the border. Let's watch that the

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biden Harris administration has an open door policy at the

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borders and it doesn't matter how many times Secretary Blinken

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or Kamala Harris or anyone from the administration says,

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you know, don't come across the border. The

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reality is that people are being let in and crossing

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the border every single day. The fact is that

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the open door policy that this administration has in place

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is posing a humanitarian crisis is creating a humanitarian crisis

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as well as a very serious security threat for our

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country. It's so hard to I always say that

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, you know, we don't want people coming across

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in this very kind of uh in this Russian and

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it's very unsafe. It's unsafe for them. It's

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not good. Also we're in the middle of a

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pandemic. But you do if you you're going to

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have that unless you have some kind of process,

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but we have to reform the process to make it

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easier to come here legally. And then we'll have

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fewer people coming here illegally is that is that what

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we're seeing, essentially, yes, when you ban

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anything, whether it's, you know, drugs or

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guns or migration or abortion, you know, and

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I touched down all the difficult ones on purpose.

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You will get a black market for that product or

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service or sociological phenomenon. You see that in migration

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, it's strange to me, Gabbert did say she

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she compared later on in that in the Peace.

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She compared the numbers of border crossings this year,

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which are historical highs. There's no doubt about that

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. She compared it to 2020 numbers and that's that's

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a little bit um enumerate because obviously 2020 because of

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the pandemic is should have an asterisk next to its

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name. But it but it is it is interesting

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to see sort of an idiosyncratic democrat like Tulsi Gabbard

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talk about sort of the goal being nobody crossing the

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border when the rest of the party is definitely not

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at that point. That is not how they're measuring

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success. That is how a lot of republicans are

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measuring success does for Yeah, I know you're a

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fan of Tulsi kim, what's what's I mean,

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what's he doing? I was a big I was

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a big supporter of hers during the election and I

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think that her she's maybe shifted on some things in

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border policy might be one of those things that I

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don't agree with her on anymore. But, you

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know, one thing that she's mentioning there is the

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open door policy, you know, during her campaign

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, it wasn't so much about the open door policy

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was about previous, um, you know, previous

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policies of the United States that sort of created these

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crises in latin America. And very much we've seen

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in Haiti over the years, the various different,

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um, you know, administration's doing various different things

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to Haiti causing sort of this, um, you

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know, lack of economic prosperity in the country.

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So how much of this do you think is actually

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open door policy at the border? Or do you

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think rafael that this has more to do with the

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historical, um, just the historical policy of the

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United States has had throughout latin America. And Haiti

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, I mean, it's, it's completely false to

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say that there is an open door policy. You

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know, the 7500 ish. Haitians who've been,

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who've been repatriated since the del rio thing since september

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19th would tell you that that's clearly not an open

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door policy, but there is a balance right there

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. There is sort of um, some people at

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the border, some Haitians in the United States told

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their relatives that it was easier for them to cross

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and it was easier for them to stay, Not

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understanding, um, any any Haitian who was in

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the United States before July 29 sort of got a

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cut off date and they're good to stay for for

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at least a while under the temporary protected status program

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that created a little bit of a telephone, uh

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, you know the game telephone. And some Haitians

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were attracted to the United States by that. That

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is obviously not an open doors policy. On the

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other hand, you do have us policy in the

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region. Some countries are more affected by it.

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Haiti is the example of a country where the United

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States has been very involved in Haitian politics since the

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90s. It was especially involved during the Obama administration

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. And since the Obama administration, Haiti has has

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taken a turn for the worst, that's in its

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worst state Since the end of the Duvalier dictatorship in

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the 1980s. And the United States does have did

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have a direct effect on the worsening of conditions of

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Haiti. Of course, there was also two very

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big earthquakes. Those are nobody's fault. But Haiti

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was not in the condition to repair itself because of

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policies to deal with the United States and the entire

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international community. Let's let's remember that the whole world

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has sort of done Haiti wrong. But particularly the

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United States, you can't really say that for with

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Mexican migrants for instance, Mexico has had its own

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governance issues and its own governance successes. So there's

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always a balance. But in the case of Haiti

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, yes, the role of the United States and

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growing Haitian migration is right. But even, but

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even in Mexico, right, the role that are

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drug war plays in empowering drug cartels in Mexico that

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then create political instability and violence and then cause people

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to flee the country is is not not something we're

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trying to do. But as an indirect result of

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our policies, right. Certainly the drug war has

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not helped Mexico and since 2006 has been a complete

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disaster in Mexico and has been a worsening disaster.

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The United States plays a huge role on there.

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But then you have sort of the integration of both

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economies and the actual industrialization of Mexico, that's that's

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created good jobs in the country. So there's a

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balance and then the mexican government. Well, it's

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a government that rules a much larger, more robust

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country, more robust economy. And the mistakes they

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have made are more sort of on them than under

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the United States. But yes, the drug war

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is a perfect example of of where the United States

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has done specifically Mexico wrong. Yeah, yeah,

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Good points Rafael, thank you so much for being

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with us. We really appreciate it. Great being

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here, We'll have more rising for you right after

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this