WH Press Secretary Misleads the Americans About Haitian Migrants

There is little doubt that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a very difficult job. After all, she has to publicly defend an administration that has been going from failure to disaster – whether it’s the border crisis or Afghanistan – and is compelled to rationalize the irrational, defend the indefensible, and excuse the incompetent. No matter the salary, that is a job most of us would not want. However, Ms. Psaki’s insult to the American public’s intelligence, during a September 20 White House press briefing, makes one feel considerably more frustration than pity.

During the briefing, Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Psaki about the Haitian illegal migrants at the Texas-Mexico border. “Is somebody asking,” Doocy inquired, “the foreign nationals who are walking in in Del Rio, Texas, and setting up camps on this side of the border for proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test?”

The Fox News correspondent also pointed out that “that is the policy for people who fly into the country” legally (see here and here for details), not to mention President Biden’s recent COVID-19 vaccine mandate for some Americans.

Psaki responded absurdly that the illegal migrants are “not intending to stay here for a lengthy period of time,” as though hundreds of thousands of people are embarking on an arduous and dangerous trek, entrusting themselves and their children to smugglers, in order to spend a few days at Disneyland before heading home. “It’s not the same thing,” she continued.  “These are individuals … we are expelling … based on Title 42, specifically because of COVID, because we want to prevent a scenario where large numbers of people are gathering, posing a threat to the community and also to the migrants themselves.”

Of course, the vast majority of illegal migrants do intend to stay in the U.S. for as long as possible. The pro-mass-migration lobby’s own propaganda shows that. If illegal migrants intended to “circle back” to their homelands after a short sojourn in our country then the lobby’s constant push amnesty, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and other ways to make it easier for illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. as long as possible would not make sense. Perhaps Psaki misspoke, and meant to say that the U.S. government does not intend for the Haitian migrants to stay here “for a lengthy period of time,” but even that is doubtful in light of the fact that the administration has all but ceased deportations.

As far as Title 42 expulsions are concerned, the White House press secretary is telling what at best can be described as a half-truth – something which most people would probably call a lie. Yes, some Haitian illegal migrants (nearly all of whom have been living outside of Haiti for years) have indeed been sent back to their homeland, much to the dismay of the pro-mass-migration radical left that believes Joe Biden isn’t doing enough to dismantle our borders and immigration laws.

However, many Haitians have not been expelled. One media outlet pointed out that “[m]any Haitian migrants in Del Rio are being released in the United States, according to two U.S. officials, undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion to Haiti. Haitians have been freed on a ‘very, very large scale’ in recent days, one official said Tuesday. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and thus spoke on condition of anonymity, put the figure in the thousands. Many have been released with notices to appear at an immigration office within 60 days, an outcome that requires less processing time from Border Patrol agents than ordering an appearance in immigration court and points to the speed at which authorities are moving.” The media outlet reporting this was not Breitbart or Fox News. It was the Associated Press.

Admittedly, expelling some is better than expelling none. But it still sends a message to hundreds of thousands of prospective illegal migrants that there is a strong chance that they will get in and get released, rather than an overwhelming guarantee that they’ll be caught and immediately deported.

Why mislead the American public about how many illegal migrants from Haiti were released into our country? President Biden’s immigration and border policies are very unpopular with the American people, and his approval ratings have also been suffering due to the administration’s disastrous handling of the Afghanistan pullout, so it may be understandable that the White House wants to lull Americans into complacency by pretending to be tough on the illegal migrants. But a lie is still a lie, and the American people deserve better.