(RightWing.org) – Hundreds of illegal migrants have been turned back by the US Coast Guard. The migrants were trying to enter the US by boat from the Bahamas and Haiti. They’re the first test of a new immigration policy brought in by the Biden administration.
Over the week of June 3-9, the US Coast Guard intercepted 305 people heading for Florida on small boats from the Bahamas and Haiti. The migrants were taken off the boats, which the Coast Guard described as “unsafe,” and returned to their own countries. A hundred and nine were taken to the Bahamas on June 9, and 196 were delivered to Haiti the next day.
Coast Guard spokesman Lt Nick Fujimoto said in a statement that “Irregular maritime migration is unlawful and extremely dangerous,” and warned that with hurricane season approaching it isn’t going to get any safer.
The Coast Guard operation, part of its ongoing Operation Vigilant Sentry, took place days after the Biden administration, in a desperate attempt to win over voters worried about mass immigration, brought in a new policy that denies asylum to illegal immigrants who enter the US by sea or land.
However, this policy isn’t being applied evenly. The restrictions on our southern border only kick in when the average number of illegal immigrants over a seven-day period breaks 2,500 a day. However, the Coast Guard will stop and turn back boat migrants without any threshold. Yet again, it looks like this administration is turning a blind eye to migrants crossing from Mexico.
Haiti’s government has collapsed and the country is being torn apart by fighting between heavily armed criminal gangs. There are widespread food shortages, so it’s not hard to understand why Haitians would want to leave. However, the Bahamas is a stable, democratic British Commonwealth member and after the US and Canada has the highest per-capita GDP in the Americas.
Copyright 2024, RightWing.org
