Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin clashed with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday over 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 U.N. and Human Rights Watch, it doesn’t sound safe for Haitians. More than 8,100 killings documented last year, those weren’t Americans,” Tapper said. “Haiti is among the top five countries with the highest rates of rape and sexual abuse, with more than 1,200 cases of sexual violence last year. That’s not Americans; 1.4 million people have been displaced. Those aren’t Americans.”
“Is there a question in that?” Mullin replied to Tapper’s monologue.
Tapper began by asking whether all affected migrants would be deported and when removals would start.
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“Will you be deporting all of them?” Tapper asked. “Will they be all deported back to their home countries, Haiti and Syria? And when will these deportations start? Will it be immediately?”
Mullin said TPS was not intended to become a permanent immigration status and said beneficiaries had time to pursue other options.
“Temporary Protected Status was never intended to be permanent,” Mullin said. “The whole time these individuals have been here underneath the Temporary Protected Status, they could have applied for a visa. They could have applied for LPR. They could have applied for different directions.”
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Tapper pressed Mullin on whether Haiti was safe enough for returns, pointing to the State Department’s April Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory and warnings about crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and limited health care.
“That do not travel is not for Haitians,” Mullin said. “That’s do not travel for the United States, because they are kidnapping or trying to kidnap individuals from the United States because they feel like their family has the money to pay the ransom.”
Tapper countered that U.N. and Human Rights Watch reports showed Haitian victims, citing killings, sexual violence and displacement.
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“I understand that,” Tapper said. “But based on everything I have read, including the U.N. and Human Rights Watch, it doesn’t sound safe for Haitians.”
Tapper then asked how deportations could happen while commercial flights to Port-au-Prince are restricted because of gunfire and gang violence.
Mullin said DHS has deportation-flight options where commercial travel is limited.
“We have several options for deporting individuals, because we have deportation flights, where we can get into areas where maybe commercial travel can’t go to,” Mullin said. “We expect to have pretty full flights going back to Haiti and going back to some of these countries where TPS has been eliminated.”
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Mullin said the administration would provide travel assistance to migrants who choose to leave.
“We will provide the travel for them,” Mullin said. “And, like I said, we will give them $2,100 roughly to go back home.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed lower court orders that delayed TPS terminations for Haiti and Syria. The court said the TPS statute bars judicial review of nonconstitutional claims and that Haitian challengers were unlikely to succeed on an equal protection claim.
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 for nationals who cannot safely return home because of armed conflict, disaster or extraordinary temporary conditions. The Supreme Court said Haiti’s TPS designation followed the 2010 earthquake and Syria’s followed the civil war that began in 2011.
