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Jim Acosta on refugee ‘contradiction’: ‘Welcoming Afghans, but sending Haitians back’

“Is there a contradiction there?” Acosta asked DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about America’s treatment of refugees.

CNN anchorman Jim Acosta singularly questioned U.S. immigration policy this weekend when he interviewed Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Acosta noted to Mayorkas on Sunday that America has welcomed at least 50,000 Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort in their homeland, but is sending back Haitian refugees.

“We’re welcoming Afghans, but we’re sending Haitians back. Is there a contradiction there?” Acosta asked, as reported by Newsweek.

“Not at all,” replied Mayorkas, the first Latino and first immigrant confirmed to serve as Homeland Security secretary. “Those two processes are quite different. We are bringing in Afghan nationals by air after they have been screened and vetted. That is a safe, orderly and humane process.”

CNN anchorman Jim Acosta (left) singularly questioned U.S. immigration policy this weekend when he interviewed Alejandro Mayorkas (right), secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Photo: CNN)

“That is quite different,” he contended, “than irregular migration, illegal entry in between ports of entry in a time of pandemic when we have been quite clear, explicit, for months now that that is not the way to reach the United States. And it will not succeed.”

President Joe Biden‘s administration is ramping up the deportation of Haitians, with increased flights leaving Del Rio, Texas. Associated Press is reporting up to eight flights a day will depart to send migrants back to the Caribbean nation struggling with natural disasters and political turmoil.

Mayorkas confirmed he will be traveling to Del Rio, where thousands of Haitian migrants are camping, to assess the situation.

The Afghan refugees coming to our shores aided the U.S. war effort, Mayorkas explained.

We have seen a significant influx of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, TX. But we are surging resources, and @DHSgov is taking a multi-prong approach to this. https://t.co/AWD5isegmX

— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) September 20, 2021

#NEW: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will travel to Del Rio today to receive an operational briefing on what steps are being taken to address the current migrant situation.

— Sandra Rodriguez (@KRGV_Sandra) September 20, 2021

“This is who we are as a country. We stand up for the people who stood up for us,” he maintained. “We are providing refuge to individuals who assisted us in combat in Afghanistan. We are providing refuge to vulnerable women, journalists, young kids.”

“This is one of our greatest traditions as a country,” Mayorkas told Acosta. “We have committed relief to those individuals, and we are delivering it. And we are delivering it while securing the safety of the American public.”

Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley recently said, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch, “That ICE [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would continue to carry out the mass deportations of our Haitian neighbors — with Haiti in the midst of its worst political, public health and economic crises yet — is cruel and callous.”

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Thousands of Haitian migrants forced to gather under Texas bridge

More than 9,000 migrants, primarily from Haiti who’ve been affected by a series of natural disasters, were being held in a temporary staging area in Del Rio, Texas.

According to reports from the U.S. Border Patrol, more than 9,000 migrants, primarily from Haiti who’ve been affected by a series of natural disasters, were being held in a temporary staging area in Del Rio, Texas.

It was initially just a few hundred individuals earlier in the week, The New York Times reports.  The Border Patrol insists they will have additional agents “to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters and to facilitate a safe, humane and orderly process.”

The shaded area under the bridge where the migrants are being held should “prevent injuries from heat-related illness” as more migrants are processed.

Migrants Del Rio Texas thegrio.comMigrants wash their clothes in the Rio Grande River near a makeshift encampment under the International Bridge between Del Rio, TX and Acuña, MX on September 17, 2021 in Del Rio, Texas. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the state police and the National Guard to assist border agents.

“The Biden administration is in complete disarray and is handling the border crisis as badly as the evacuation from Afghanistan,” Abbott said.

Del Rio’s Mayor, Bruno Lozano, also spoke out, commenting on the conditions the migrants are subjected to. There’s minimal access to clean water and food. There are just a few dozen portable toilets available.

“There are 9,000 people really anxious and stressed,” Lozano said. The city of Del Rio currently has a population of an estimated 35,000 residents.

The Del Rio border sector has been the site of much migrant traffic this year. In June, many were caught illegally crossing the border, twice as many as in May. The numbers continued to rise month to month.

The government has plans to fly some of the migrants to other parts of the border that aren’t as overpopulated as Del Rio. Return flights to Haiti are also in effect, currently scheduled to begin on Monday, Sept. 20. Biden’s administration hopes this will encourage other Haitians to try not to cross the southern border.

Abbott has instructed Texas state law enforcement to arrest migrants for illegal trespassing, claiming the Biden administration was not doing its part. The Biden administration has come under much scrutiny for its handling of the situation or lack thereof.

Large Migration Surge Crosses Rio Grande Into Del Rio, TexasMigrants walk across the Rio Grande River carrying food and other supplies back to a makeshift encampment under the International Bridge between Del Rio, TX and Acuña, MX on September 17, 2021, in Del Rio, Texas. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Victor Escalon, the South Texas regional director for the state’s Department of Public Safety, has spoken of the arrests made for criminal trespassing of illegal migrants, which he says has overwhelmed the local jails.

“We have to put the pressure and deter the activity,” he said. Escalon is leading Operation Lone Star, a program created by Gov. Abbott that allows him to send resources and state agents to border communities.

Tiffany Burrow, the operations director for the Val Verde Humanitarian Border Coalition’s migrant respite center, said the city just cannot accommodate as many migrants that have been coming in.

“We can’t help that many people,” she said. “The city is not going to sustain all these people. The city under the bridge could become bigger than Del Rio.”

Usually, the group helps an estimated 300 migrants a day. They assist with connecting them with transportation to their final destination in the U.S.

Unfortunately, the conditions remain the same. The thousands of migrants have access to just 22 portable toilets. There is no running water.

The report notes that migrants typically feed themselves with food purchased in Mexico, which they get by running back and forth across the Rio Grande. They sleep in packed dirt beneath the bright with minimal lighting.

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As Washington navigates infrastructure, climate activists demand equity for Black neighborhoods

EXCLUSIVE: Coalition groups want subsidies reinvested into renewable energy for communities of color negatively impacted by oil companies.

Echoes of protest chants on infrastructure and climate change were wafting through the wind and landing in the White House press briefing room on Monday.

Just as the White House and Capitol Hill leadership are said to be closer to an infrastructure deal, some additional hurdles are springing up as both parties eye the finish line.

U.S. President Joe BidenU.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks during an event commemorating LGBTQ+ Pride Month in the East Room of the White House on June 25, (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is demanding that President Joe Biden tell Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to unlink any bipartisan measures from other Democratic proposals like climate change.

At Monday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said “the president plans to sign each piece of legislation into law.” Psaki was adamant about not getting into the weeds of the process but more focused on the end result.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki answers questions during her daily briefing on June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

During the daily press briefing, Psaki said, “the American people are most interested in what we are going to do to deliver for them. How are we going to rebuild the roads, the railways and their bridges? How are we going to make sure they have access to broadband, that we are eliminating lead from drinking water?”

The timing for a new infrastructure law comes as states are ending jobless benefits and the housing foreclosure moratorium was never promised to be a permanent fixture in the Biden administration. The infrastructure plan is meant to keep money circulating and create millions of jobs.

When it comes to some of the components of the infrastructure bill, former Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx likes the numbers for transportation. He tells theGrio, “$559 billion in additional spending” is earmarked for transportation with a base of $300 billion over a five or six-year period. Foxx also said during the phone interview, “There is also a potential to see some real action on equity.”

Former Transportation Secretary Anthony FoxxFormer Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Democrats on the Hill are going to find out Tuesday or Wednesday more details on the administration’s plans on infrastructure.

Yet, one of the stumbling blocks in the infrastructure bill is climate, specifically fossil fuels and questions about ending subsidies to gas and fuel companies. So far, fossil fuel subsidies are included in the infrastructure bill. However, President Biden supports ending the subsidies.

Coalition groups want the subsidies to be reinvested into renewable energy sources for the communities the oil companies negatively impact: Black and brown neighborhoods. These advocacy groups also want the money that would have been used for subsidies to be used for access to health care and add more money to education in the impacted communities.

A young climate activist joins hundreds of fellow marchers as they walk to the White House to demand that U.S. President Joe Biden work to make the Green New Deal into law on June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Ebony Martin, Chief Operating Officer at Greenpeace told theGrio there will be a rally at the Capitol on ending fossil fuel subsidies on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Roe Conner are expected to speak at the event.

Martin cites examples of environmental harm with the oil wells in California. Martin says there is supposed to be a 25-foot buffer, “for the oil wells. Every state has them except California.

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