Biden Administration’s Cowardly Immigration Policies Are Muddled And Inhumane

United States Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Lewis Foote resigned his position today in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying, “I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life. Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed...."

Sam Seder and the Majority Report crew talk about the incredible rarity of a U.S. diplomat resigning on principle. The first issue that the Biden administration addressed in this week's series of events involving Haitian immigrants was in response to images from the border of immigrants being chased by men on horses with whips. Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration would no longer be using horses. Which might have missed the point.

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Sam Seder: There doesn't seem to be any concept or tradition in this country — certainly you see it more in in Britain, for instance — the idea of resigning out of principle. It just runs contrary to everything that our our capitalist society has suggested. And there's something else to it, too. This sort of concept of constructive engagement. I mean you look at all the people in the Trump administration who ostensibly were there because they were going to be the checks and balances on everything, right?

Emma Vigeland: There's a concept of honor in walking away that doesn't exist necessarily in the United States.

SS: And it's not just a question of of honor, although that's I guess part of it in integrity. But it also highlights the idea that this guy Daniel Foote, he was appointed Special Envoy to Haiti over the summer shortly after the assassination of Jovenel Moise, and it gives us a sense at least as to how various communities around the world, and certainly those who are involved in this, also view this. And also a sense of internally, there is — and of course this guy's not involved in the Department of Homeland Security — but internally, there is a sense of, "What are you doing?" Certainly Daniel Foote would have a sense of just how bad things are in Haiti following these two disasters over the summer and then the sort of political upheaval that comes with the assassination of a sitting president.

EV: In his resignation letter he also noted that part of his resignation was the Biden administration's meddling in Haiti's governmental affairs, which is also I think another layer of, "Wow! We don't see that every day in the United States." The acknowledgement of the United States' role in destabilizing Haiti politically.

SS: Yep. He wrote specifically to Blinken: "I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life." We have a specific program to address the these exact situations. We actually have multiple ones, but there's the temporary protected status, which seems quite obviously would apply if you're going to have that program, it would seem quite obvious that it applies to the haitian people now as much as any other time, and then just sort of you know the question of some form of refugee status when you have this kind of disarray in the country and it is incredibly violent.

SS: Here is Jen Psaki just not getting it. We saw the images of the Custom and Border Patrol horseback riders with their reins or whatever it was that they were using to corral, to whip these immigrants who, incidentally, were returning from Mexico they had crossed the river to get food for their families who were in the United States. They were carrying plastic bags with what appeared to be styrofoam that contained food.

Matt Lech: We should just say they were swinging those cords around as they were menacing them, menacing them with the horses. The photographer says he couldn't see anybody actually whipped by it.

SS: And so how do you address this? well here is Jen Psacki showing us... tell us how you don't get the point.