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Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin clashed with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday about deportations to Haiti after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump's administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
“I understand that. But based on everything I have read, including the UN and Human Rights Watch, it does not feel safe for the Haitian people. More than 8,100 murders recorded last year, those were not Americans,” said Tapper. “Haiti is among the top five countries with the highest rate of rape and sexual abuse, with over 1,200 cases of sexual violence last year. Those are not Americans; 1.4 million people have been deported. Those are not Americans.”
“Any question on that?” Mullin responded to Tapper's monologue.
Tapper began by asking if all affected immigrants would be deported and when the removals would begin.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin appeared on CNN's “State of the Union,” where he defended deportations after the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS protections for Haitians and Syrians.
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“Are you going to fire them all?” Tapper asked. “Will they all be deported back to their countries, Haiti and Syria? And when will this deportation begin? Will it be soon?”
Mullin said TPS was not intended to be an immigration status and said beneficiaries have time to pursue other options.
“Temporary Protected Status was not intended to be permanent,” Mullin said. “Every time these people were here under Temporary Protected Status, they could have applied for a visa. They could have applied for LPR. They could have applied for different methods.”
Jake Tapper presses Mullin on whether Haiti is safe from deportation, citing State Department warnings, UN statistics and reports of gang violence.
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Tapper pressed Mullin on whether Haiti is safe enough to return, pointing to the State Department's April Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisories and warnings about crime, terrorism, kidnappings, unrest and limited health care.
“That absence is not for the Haitian people,” Mullin said. “That doesn't go to the United States, because they kidnap or try to kidnap people in the United States because they think their family has the money to pay the ransom.”
Tapper responded that reports by the UN and Human Rights Watch show Haiti's victims, citing killings, sexual violence and deportations.
The Trump administration moved to end Temporary Protected Status for about 330,000 Haitian immigrants after the Supreme Court struck down the policy, prompting questions from CNN about the deportation plans and the plane's cargo. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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“I can hear that,” Tapper said. “But based on everything I've read, including the UN and Human Rights Watch, it doesn't sound safe for the Haitian people.”
Tapper then asked how deportations were possible when flights to Port-au-Prince were banned because of gunfire and gang violence.
Mullin said DHS has deportation flight options when commercial travel is limited.
“We have a lot of evacuation options, because we have evacuation flights, where we can go into places where commercial travel can't go,” Mullin said. “We expect to have good flights back to Haiti and back to some of these countries where TPS has been removed.”
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Mullin said the administration will provide travel assistance to migrants who choose to leave.
“We're going to provide them with a tour,” Mullin said. “And, like I said, we're going to give them about $2,100 to go home.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned lower court orders that delayed the termination of TPS in Haiti and Syria. The court said the TPS law prevents judicial review of illegal claims and that Haitian challengers are unlikely to succeed in an equal protection claim.
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TPS was established by Congress in 1990 for people who cannot return home safely due to conflict, disaster or temporary extraordinary circumstances. The Supreme Court said the appointment of Haiti's TPS followed the 2010 earthquake and Syria's following the civil war that began in 2011.
