REP. MATT GAETZ: Don’t make Haiti my Florida

While Washington and the nation at large focus on the southern border, there is a forgotten invasion of Florida.

I recently paid for one visit to the brave Coast Guardsmen who keep Florida safe from illegal immigration and drug traffickers. The Coast Guard was kind enough to give me a briefing and aerial tour.

I decided to make this trip after reviewing the recent shocking statistics of migrants, especially tThe number of illegal Haitian immigrants entering Florida.

Only between January and May 2023, CBP Found 23,490 illegal Haitians in his sector of Florida. By comparison, for fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022 combined, CBP found only 1,479 in its Florida sector.

The The Coast Guard routinely bans Haitians from the ocean trying to reach Florida through the Florida Straits, as well as the Bimini and Bahamas corridors.

From October 1, 2022, Coast Guard crews forbidden 4,717 Haitian migrants. This is a whopping 1000 percent increase from the 418 Haitian migrants trapped at sea throughout fiscal year 2017.

All Haitians who land functionally will stay in Florida forever.

Unlike when illegal immigrants cross the southern border and disperse across the country, these Haitians congregate in Southeast Florida and overwhelm taxpayer resources.

Haiti is not sending the best in these ships. During my trip I learned that our brave Coast Guardsmen have to witness some tragic things while dealing with illegal Haitian immigrants. One told me, “When we get close to the boats, the Haitians sometimes douse the babies in gasoline and threaten to burn them alive if we get on.”

We need to be honest about the impact of illegal illegal immigration from Haiti.

These are not software engineers who are stuck at sea. A 2005 study of Haitian immigrants in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood found that only 22% had a high school degree. That same year, more than 85 percent of adults nationwide it had a high school diploma.

The impact of illegal Haitian immigration on Florida’s social services is significant. They are more than twice they are more likely to use food stamps, Medicaid, and other major welfare programs than their native-born peers.

These illegal migrants also place a significant burden on Florida’s hospitals. In 2005 to study found that nearly one-third of Haitians in Miami used taxpayer-subsidized health care. Haitian migrants in Miami have higher rates of chronic diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and the country is one of the worst tuberculosis. This is due to a number of factors, including poverty. Haitians are poorer national group in Miami-Dade County.

All of this is understandable considering what kind of nation Haiti is. Haiti is a miserable place and has been for a long time. The government there is corrupt and the quality of life is the worst in the Western Hemisphere. I know. I’ve been there and seen it. It was a sad and horrible state of human existence and I wish the corruption that has harmed these people didn’t exist, but it does. Just because Haiti is near Florida doesn’t mean my state has to be flooded with illegal Haitian immigrants.

They not only burden our state’s social services, but also our state’s prisons. Adam Jobbers-Miller was the Fort Myers police officer dead in 2018 after being shot in the head by an alien from Haiti with an immigration detainer. It was an avoidable death.

We are not Haiti. The United States has the ability to solve this migration crisis. We must increase the resources of the Department of Defense, including the Navy, to stop this invasion of Florida. All illegal immigrants caught trying to come to America must be quickly returned to their nation.

We also need internal control. Illegal immigrants who came here cannot stay. There will be no path to citizenship. They have to come back.

One of the things that separates our wonderful country from a place like Haiti is the rule of law. Let’s make it happen.

I can’t sit idly by while Biden tries to Haiti my Florida.

Matt Gaetz represents Florida’s 1st Congressional District.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.