Biden Administration Warns Cubans, Haitians Against Fleeing to US Amid Unrest

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday warned citizens of Cuba and Haiti against trying to flee to the United States amid unrest in those nations, saying they would be repatriated or referred to other countries for resettlement.

A group that advocates for immigrants criticized Mayorkas’s remarks, saying migrants have the legal right to seek asylum. Katharina Obser, the acting director of the Migrant Rights & Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said the organization was “gravely disappointed” by the secretary’s “repeated insistence on rejecting desperate families, children, and single adults from our borders, whether by foot or by sea.”