During an interview with “The Joe Pags Show” that took place on Thursday and was released on Friday, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) addressed his vote in favor of extended TPS for Haitians and said that he thinks some Haitians, like those who came across the border illegally, should lose TPS, but “I’m asking for individual consideration of people who came here in good faith, who never broke the law, who are working, who are not a burden to our society.” And “you can’t lump everybody together in this rule. And, unfortunately, when Kristi Noem announced this, that’s exactly what she did.”
McCormick began by saying, “I am not here to protect anybody who came here illegally. If you came here across the southern border here illegally, even from Haiti, send them back to Mexico, wherever they came in from, that’s fine. But there is a subset of Haitians who came here in good faith, legally, absolutely legally. And a lot of them are working in hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice homes, people I know and who I worked with, who I respect, never broke the law, not one law.”
He added, “If we take away the temporary protection, it doesn’t mean they go home right away. They still get their day in court. It just means they can’t work. For those people who say, well, 65% or 60% of them are on welfare, that would be 100% now on welfare while they wait for their day in court.”
Host Joe Pags then asked, “So, can we make that delineation between those who came here illegally under Biden and those who came here because of the earthquake and because of how bad things are in Haiti?”
McCormick answered, “So, that’s exactly what I asked for. I actually called the administration. I tried to do this in good faith. I said, please, when Kristi Noem announced everybody’s going back, I was like, can we have a discussion about this? Because you can’t group everybody together. Not everybody was brought in the same way. Not everybody has the same rules of application of the way that they work or when they’re going to be sent back and how they’re going to be sent back. You can’t group everybody together. These blanket rules are always what get us in trouble in government. I’m asking for individual consideration of people who came here in good faith, who never broke the law, who are working, who are not a burden to our society. I don’t believe that you should have been coming here from — once again, just like any other immigration, if you came here from some other country via — through Mexico or wherever, that’s not okay. You stay there. I’ve never said that was okay. But you can’t lump everybody together in this rule. And, unfortunately, when Kristi Noem announced this, that’s exactly what she did. And I immediately protested. I tried to keep this from coming to the floor. I voted against the measure. I voted against those provisions. And I don’t like to empower the Democrats at all. But, in good moral faith, I could not look people that I actually worked with, that I know, and say, I’m going to vote to send you back to almost certain rape, starvation, and even death.”
Pags followed up, “So, I just want to make sure that we’re clear, because I think I understand what you’re saying, those who came because they needed to be saved from the earthquake, and maybe those who were direct targets of the bad guys in Haiti, they came here in good faith, and we allowed them to come here, they didn’t come across the border illegally, you’re saying those who did it that way, let’s give them their day in court. Those who came across the border illegally, you’re cool with taking away temporary status?”
McCormick responded, “100%. Like I said, and maybe not send them back to Haiti, but send them back to where they came across, Mexico or wherever, Brazil, it doesn’t matter. But I just don’t think we can make a blanket rule.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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