Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Cuban and Haitian refugees that President Joe Biden‘s administration will not admit them if they try to cross the Caribbean Sea and Florida Straits to seek asylum in the United States.
Even Cuban and Haitian migrants who present a “well-founded fear of persecution or torture” will not be permitted to apply for asylum in the United States, the New York Post reported.
Those refugees with legitimate claims will be sent to another country for resettlement.
“They will not enter the United States,” Mayorkas said at a press conference.
He said the Coast Guard will return migrants without legitimate asylum claims to their country of origin.
The Biden administration has not directed the same clear warning to the South and Central Americans, Africans and Middle Easterners who are streaming across the US–Mexico border.
Biden has opened asylum applications to illegal aliens who come in through the wide-open Southern border, even though most are not fleeing political or religious persecution but simply seeking better economic opportunities, which is not a legitimate reason for asylum.
The Biden administration’s double-standard on illegal immigration and legitimate asylum claims may reveal a hidden political purpose: Cubans vote Republican and Haitians seem to lean less Democratic than other black populations, though they remain heavily Democratic.
Mayorkas and his family fled Cuba for the United States when Fidel Castro seized power and turned the once-prosperous nation into a Marxist hell where religious, political and economic divergence is punished.
Yet, he will not allow the same opportunity for today’s Cubans.
“The time is never right to attempt migration by sea,” Mayorkas said. “To those who risk their lives doing so, this risk is not worth taking. Allow me to be clear: If you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States.”
The journey comes with clear risks.
American authorities have identified 20 people in the past few weeks who have died trying to travel the seas south of Florida.
Cubans supported President Donald Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections because they viewed him as a bulwark against the same Marxist ideology that destroyed their homeland.
Haiti has seen unrest since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated last week.
Political unrest has spread through Cuba, too. The regime’s opponents recently gathered in Havana’s streets to shout, “Freedom!” “Enough!” and “Unite!”
