On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “At This Hour,” Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) stated that “hiding behind a health order about COVID” to deport Haitian migrants at the border “is completely unacceptable.” And “the COVID situation in Haiti is very dire. … So, don’t tell me we’re solving the COVID crisis by sending migrants back to a country which is saying openly we have no way of processing these people, of feeding them, of clothing them, of housing them.”
Lein said, “First of all, the government of Haiti says they have no capacity to take them. They can’t feed them. They can’t clothe them. Many of these people, as I think you know, did not come recently from Haiti. They — many haven’t been to Haiti in 5 or 10 or 20 years. They’ve been living in Panama or Chile or other countries. And so, I think — and then many of them are trying to seek asylum. So our law, Kate, says that when any person comes to our border seeking asylum, they have a right to a hearing and we have to follow U.S. law and international law. And the idea of hiding behind a health order about COVID is completely unacceptable. I mean, the COVID situation in Haiti is very dire. We’re having a lot of trouble getting vaccines distributed there. It has the second-lowest vaccination rate of any country in the world after the Democratic Republic of Congo. So, don’t tell me we’re solving the COVID crisis by sending migrants back to a country which is saying openly we have no way of processing these people, of feeding them, of clothing them, of housing them.”
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