In Washington, people are always talking about the U.S. border with Mexico, but in a lot of ways, what we see here in Florida is the forgotten invasion. Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz took to the skies with the Coast Guard Tuesday morning to get a better understanding of the migrant crisis in Florida s coastal waters. Today, Victoria Cardenas sat down with Rep. Gaetz to discuss the asylum and illegal immigration challenges Florida is facing in Washington, D.C. And in Haiti, we look back to the days of Papa Doc Valier, the former president of Haiti. He was accused of embezzlement, money laundering, and suppressing dissent. He was also accused of killing people. But in 2014, a grand jury investigation into him concluded that he was a despot. So let s look back at the history of Haiti and ask the question: How did this happen? And why is it happening in the state of Florida? And what role does Haiti play in the ongoing problem of illegal immigration and asylum? In this episode, we talk about Haiti and the Haitian invasion of Florida, and why it s so important that we don t talk about it. And how can we stop Haiti from being a poor country? Let s look at Haiti and Haiti from that perspective. and why Haiti is a miserable place and the corruption that s been going on for so long, and how it s been allowed to continue to exist in the past century. This episode is a must listen. . Thank you for listening to Firebrand Firebrand! Firebrand. - Your support is so we can keep spreading the word out there about this podcast and spreading the truth about what s going on in the world. , and we hope you can be a part of the conversation about it - and we ll keep spreading it everywhere. -- including in this episode of Firebrand, everywhere -- and we re not just in the news, everywhere else -- -- Thank you, Firebrand -- Firebrand Media Matters , Firebrand Radio firebrand Tweet Me! , Text Meister Meister . . . and I'm burning it out there! - Timestamps: 0:00 - - 0:30 - 5:15 - 6:40 - 7:00 | 8:30 | 9:15 | 11:40 | 13:00 15:00 // 16:30 17:10 | 18:15 21:00 / 16:40 19:00 & 22:00 + 23:00 @ 27:00 ? 26:00 #
00:04:35.000Matt Gaetz was one of the very few members in the entire Congress who bothered to stand up against permanent Washington on behalf of his constituents.
00:04:42.000Matt Gaetz right now, he's a problem for the Democratic Party.
00:04:45.000He can cause a lot of hiccups in passing applause.
00:04:48.000So we're going to keep running those stories to get hurt again.
00:04:52.000If you stand for the flag and kneel in prayer, if you want to build America up and not burn her to the ground, then welcome, my fellow patriots!
00:05:28.000Today, Victoria Cardenas sat down with Congressman Matt Gaetz to discuss the asylum and illegal immigration challenges Florida is facing.
00:05:37.000In Washington, people are always talking about the U.S.-Mexico border.
00:05:41.000But in a lot of ways, what we see here in Florida is the forgotten invasion.
00:05:45.000Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz took to the skies with the U.S. Coast Guard Tuesday morning to get a better understanding of the migrant crisis in Florida's coastal waters.
00:05:57.000We are weak with the Bimini passageways just by virtue of our geography.
00:06:02.000Over the winter, when the seas are relatively calm, the Florida Keys were inundated with undocumented migrants.
00:06:08.000Governor Ron DeSantis sent the National Guard to assist the Border Patrol and local law enforcement, while the Coast Guard patrolled offshore.
00:06:51.000The Coast Guard has been upholding its mission and it has been U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not do an interview for the story, but in a statement, they are enforcing immigration laws and turning violators over to immigration authorities.
00:07:08.000And while the Coast Guard reports they have seen a sharp decrease in migrant vessels as a storm season arrives, Congressman Gates says more needs to be done.
00:07:16.000The problem is that we don't yet have Department of Defense assets to be able to really integrate not only the intelligence that we gather, but the deterrence.
00:07:24.000And Congressman Gates, who represents the Florida panhandle, is committed to ensuring resources dedicated to stopping the influx of undocumented migrants into the U.S. are protecting Florida's coast, as well as the land that borders Texas and Arizona.
00:08:18.000But before we get into Haiti, I want to start by saying how much I appreciate the many Americans who chat with us, see me on the street, and talk about Firebrand, getting updates about the truth going on in Washington, D.C.
00:08:32.000That is the core covenant of this podcast.
00:08:35.000and it's something I'm very grateful to be able to share with all of you.
00:08:40.000So whether you're folks that Gather around at the Pavilion Assisted Living Facility in Niceville, Florida, and I know you're there and watching, or whether you're even in the service of our government, like many people I've met recently who appreciate that actual facts are reaching the people undeterred and unmanipulated by mainstream corporate media.
00:09:02.000So let's get to this issue in Haiti and the forgotten Haitian invasion of the state of Florida.
00:09:10.000And it's important to have some background on Haiti.
00:10:18.000There was also John Bertrand Aristide.
00:10:20.000Aristide was the president of Haiti twice, probably guilty of money laundering on far more than two occasions.
00:10:28.000He built a system that isolated him from any formal charges, But the grift was pretty obvious with Aristide, who lived quite the lavish lifestyle.
00:10:42.000He succeeded his father as president of Haiti.
00:10:45.000Baby Doc Was another one of these dictators who killed people, slaughtered people.
00:10:52.000He was actually forced to live in exile in France until his return to Haiti in 2011. It was actually Baby Doc, not Papa Doc, who died before his trial.
00:11:06.000He was president of Haiti, and though he wasn't Personally implicated in corruption, so many of his high-ranking officials faced corruption allegations that he had built this ecosystem where nepotism, money laundering, theft occurred on a regular basis.
00:11:24.000Then there was Laurent Lamothe, former Prime Minister of Haiti from 2012 to 2014. Lamothe resigned from this position amidst allegations of corruption and protests from the people demanding his removal.
00:11:42.000Belarive was president of Haiti from 2009 to 2011. And there, there were all kinds of problems with the mismanagement of funds related to the earthquake that occurred.
00:11:53.000Following 2010, there was money flowing into Haiti.
00:11:56.000But my goodness, it didn't really get to the people.
00:12:01.000When it comes to political leadership, We have established Haiti isn't sending their best.
00:12:08.000Sometimes they aren't sending their best to Florida by the thousands on desperate floating rafts either.
00:12:14.000According to a study conducted by the Cato Institute in 2021, illegal Haitian immigrants have an incarceration rate of 4.4%.
00:12:24.000That is higher than any other group of illegal immigrants.
00:12:30.000Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and its citizens have long been seeking a better life.
00:12:35.000In recent years, Florida has become the major destination for Haitian migrants.
00:12:41.000And more than you would guess, certainly more than our own government actually knows.
00:12:46.000They're coming across the southern border with Mexico.
00:12:49.000They're also coming through the Florida Straits and through the Bahamian and Bimini passageways.
00:12:54.000This is because you haven't seen the same attention to what's going on in Florida that you've seen on our southern border.
00:13:02.000And now the influx of Haitian migrants has had a significant impact on Florida's school systems, jails, hospitals, social services.
00:13:11.000In schools, Haitian students often face all kinds of barriers, language barriers, cultural barriers, and it makes it impossible for our teachers or other students to succeed in that type of an environment.
00:13:25.00035% of all Haitian students won't graduate from high school.
00:13:29.000We will see many of them again in the juvenile justice system or worse.
00:13:33.000So that percentage is 150 times worse As far as not finishing dropping out, the non-Haitian immigrant counterparts.
00:13:42.000Haitian immigrants are also overrepresented in Florida's jails.
00:13:45.000A 2017 study by the Florida Department of Corrections found that Haitians make up 10% of the state's jail population, even though they account for only about 1% So they're batting at 10 times their population rate when it comes to the Department of Corrections.
00:14:03.000That means billions of dollars in extra costs for Florida taxpayers to lock up Haiti's criminals.
00:14:10.000Haitian migrants also have higher rates of chronic death conditions, such as HIV, AIDS, and tuberculosis.
00:14:18.000This is due to a number of factors including poverty, lack of access to health care, exposure to violence and trauma in Haiti.
00:14:25.000As a result, Haitian migrants place a significant burden on Florida's hospitals, social services, public health services, A 2018 study by the Florida Department of Health found that Haitians had a higher rate of HIV-AIDS than any other ethnic group in the state.
00:14:42.000The impact of the Haitian migration on Florida's social services, very significant.
00:14:47.000Haitian migrants are more likely to use food stamps, Medicaid, and other social services than their native-born peers.
00:14:54.000A 2019 study by the Florida Department of Children and Families found that Haitian children were more likely to be living in poverty than any other ethnic group in our state.
00:15:06.000The real invasion numbers have gotten significantly worse under Joe Biden.
00:15:11.000In fiscal year 2022, over 4,000 Haitians were interdicted at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, an 800% increase since 2020.
00:15:20.000And there are many, many more that aren't being interdicted and that are arriving at our shores interdicted.
00:15:27.000And unlike those who cross illegally on the southern border who are dispersed throughout the country, these thousands and thousands of people are frequently congregating in specific areas in southeast Florida that are being overrun.
00:15:40.000And it's not good for anyone, as you see from the data.
00:15:43.000Now there's an obvious solution to this.
00:15:46.000We surge resources, use the US Navy if necessary, and send every last person who tries to get here in these particular illegal ways back home to Haiti.
00:16:00.000It's enforcement of our borders, it's pushing our borders out through the use of those military border patrol assets, working at every level of government, but it also means internal enforcement of our immigration laws.
00:16:13.000The people who came here this way cannot stay illegally forever and we certainly cannot create some gaslit system of pathway to legal status or to citizenship when these are the challenges that our people are facing as a consequence of this migration.
00:16:32.000I also want to give you an important update today regarding Ukraine.
00:16:40.000And later this week, we'll roll out our next presidential drawdown package of weapons, ammunition, and equipment for Ukraine.
00:16:47.000More HIMARS munitions, precision-guided artillery ammunition, and tactical vehicles, and other urgently needed support.
00:16:57.000Today, I'm announcing that the United States will be sending 31 Abram tanks to Ukraine, the equivalent of one Ukrainian battalion.
00:17:06.000Secretary Austin has recommended this step Because it will enhance the Ukraine's capacity to defend its territory and achieve its strategic objectives.
00:17:15.000Last week, President Biden announced that the United States will support a joint effort with our allies and partners to train Ukrainian pilots on fourth-generation aircraft, including F-16s.
00:17:26.000Today, the Biden administration announcing it will provide a controversial new weapon to Ukraine, cluster munitions.
00:17:34.000Ukraine has been asking the U.S. for the cluster bombs since last year.
00:17:45.000Allies struggling to keep them supplied as they fight through a tough counteroffensive.
00:17:50.000And so we want to make sure that the Ukrainians have sufficient artillery to keep them in the fight in the context of the current counteroffensive.
00:18:00.000Katrina on Rumble says we have got to start covering the Biden family corruption.
00:18:05.000And I think that's frankly pretty linked to Ukraine and all the things that we're doing there and all of the just excessive and expensive U.S. involvement that is certainly not warranted with a focus on our people and our interests.
00:19:45.000And by the way, Russia is dropping with impunity cluster bombs in Ukraine, in the country of Ukraine right now.
00:19:54.000All the Ukrainians and Zelensky are asking for Is to give them the same weapons the Russians have to use in their own country against Russians who are in their own country.
00:20:05.000They do not want these to be used in Russia.
00:20:07.000They want these as self-defense to use against Russians in their own country of Ukraine.
00:20:12.000I don't see anything wrong with that because, quite honestly, Jake, as you look at the counteroffensive, it's been slowed tremendously because this administration has been so slow to get the weapons in.
00:20:23.000These weapons would be a game changer.
00:20:26.000They are highly effective, and particularly hitting flanks of troops inside of Ukraine, they would be a game changer in the counteroffensive.
00:20:36.000And I'm really pleased the administration has finally agreed to do this.
00:21:16.000The notion that the obligation of the United States of America in this conflict is to bring Ukraine into military parity with Russia is unreasonable.
00:21:27.000It's a different kind of fight as a defensive fight, and cluster bombs are a terrible idea.
00:21:32.000His next argument is, well, they're using them on their own country.
00:21:37.000We've already seen Ukraine engage in attacks inside Russia, and we've seen the very same neoconservatives and Bidenites supporting that, saying that they have a right to attack supply chains in Russia.
00:21:48.000So by what power lever are we going to control the utilization of these cluster bombs after they leave?
00:21:59.000Because we'll be in a position where we would be in direct conflict with a global power, a near-peer adversary, as all of the generals like to tell us in briefings.
00:22:21.000They will kill innocents anywhere they are used, and also they have a high dud rate, which means that there are a number of these that will deploy out of an aircraft, hit the ground, and then explode later when found by some innocent person.
00:22:39.000Now, the fact that the Ukrainian leadership would even contemplate using cluster bombs in their own country It goes from irresponsible to downright depraved.
00:22:51.000A Democrat ranking member of the Rules Committee, Jim McGovern, even filed legislation to functionally ban the export of cluster bombs from the United States for, like, any reason.
00:23:04.000And so every Democrat needs to be counted now.
00:23:09.000Are you for Biden sending cluster bombs to Ukraine?
00:23:14.000Democrats used to call the use of cluster bombs a war crime.
00:23:18.000And that war crime is now an American export.
00:23:22.000Well, we've just learned that there are some Democrats who are working against the Biden administration, and here is the legislative skinny.
00:23:31.000The National Defense Authorization Act that I've talked about on the podcast a great deal sets our military policy for the year.
00:23:39.000And it just so happens it's going to be voted on on the floor of the House of Representatives this week.
00:23:46.000Democrat Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs, who we've criticized a great deal on this show for some of her views.
00:23:52.000She's probably criticized me a great deal for some of mine.
00:23:55.000But she has introduced an amendment To the National Defense Authorization Act that reads, notwithstanding any other provision of law, no military assistance shall be furnished for cluster munitions.
00:24:08.000No defense export license for cluster munitions may be issued and no cluster munitions or cluster munitions technology shall be sold or transferred.
00:24:18.000And what I'm here to tell you is that I'm going to be the Republican co-sponsor of the Jacobs Amendment before the House Rules Committee.
00:24:26.000We have an opportunity with bipartisanship to stand against the warmongering Bidens.
00:24:32.000And these cluster bombs will not end the war in Ukraine.
00:24:36.000Let's look at the countries where cluster bombs have been used.
00:24:53.000It's hardly the cornerstone of a path to peace.
00:24:58.000This will not build a more stable Ukraine.
00:25:00.000Children will be left without limbs and without parents because of this decision by Joe Biden if we do not work together in a bipartisan fashion to stop it.
00:25:13.000This bloody war would end any time the European democracies wanted it to.
00:25:18.000Don't forget that when you see the gruesome images of the death and destruction.
00:25:23.000It's the Europeans who fund this war through their purchase of Russian gas.
00:26:18.000There's two things that I have tried to do in terms of our China policy.
00:26:22.000And by the way, I admit, first in person, was Xi Jinping more than any other world leader.
00:26:29.00068 hours alone he and I with an interpreter back when I was vice president all the way through because as you remember it was clear he was going to be president and there was uh it wasn't inappropriate for the president of the United States Barack Obama to be traveling the world with him but I traveled 17,000 miles with him and he was vice president in China and so we we understand each other I think fairly well.
00:26:56.000I would certainly agree with President Biden that if you spent 68 hours with someone and traveled 17,000 miles, that you would know a great deal about them.
00:27:07.000And they would know a great deal about you too.
00:27:10.000And you see, that is the follow-up that Fareed Zakaria was not courageous enough to ask, but it is certainly the operative question now for the country.
00:27:22.000Maybe all these payments to the Biden family from China were a consequence of Xi realizing that these were corrupt and compromisable people.
00:27:32.000Maybe it was gallivanting around the globe with Joe Biden that had Xi realized that his weak spot was Hunter.
00:27:40.000That if Hunter was bought off, paid, compromised, leveraged, turned against our country for money, that that would be a way to ensure the compromise of Joe Biden.
00:27:52.000I think that the time that these two have spent together will be very telling about not only the relationship between the two men, but about the policy changes in our country that seem to have inured to the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.
00:28:06.000Just look at the China initiative at the Department of Justice.
00:28:09.000President Trump set up a team of dedicated prosecutors to go after Chinese influence.
00:28:19.000These people are compromised, they are corrupt, and it is hurting our country each and every day.
00:28:25.000And patriots have to stand together to call it out and then to put guardrails up while we can and then to do everything we have to do to get the country back on track.
00:28:36.000Thanks so much for joining us today on Firebrand.
00:28:42.000FBI Director Christopher Wray is coming before the House of Representatives, the Judiciary Committee upon which I serve.
00:28:50.000I'm going to have a lot of questions for FBI Director Wray.
00:28:53.000If you've got suggestions, things you want to know, go ahead and leave them in the comments.
00:28:57.000Leave them in the reviews if you're listening to this show, and I'll definitely take a look.
00:29:02.000And you never know, I've used letters and suggestions that folks have given me quite regularly, particularly this Congress, to be able to ask questions of some of these corrupt officials.
00:29:12.000And again, as I mentioned before, we've got the National Defense Authorization Act.
00:29:16.000We talked about the cluster bombs today, but we're going to have a lot more to report about de-wokifying This military that we love so much and ensuring that we've got the capabilities and the standards to ensure that America always holds the high ground.