As the humanitarian crisis at the Del Rio refugee camp in Texas continues, the Biden administration is predictably doing one thing while saying another. Take the Afghan refugee situation for example. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has noted that the Taliban must “allow foreign nationals, visa holders and Afghans to travel outside the country if they wish.” Blinken has also noted that the U.S. will provide “very significant assistance” to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries in order to help them absorb refugees.

So when the U.S. creates a major humanitarian refugee crisis through 20 years of decimating a poor nation on the other side of the world, that nation’s government must allow its refugees freedom of movement, and that nation’s neighbor states should do all they can to alleviate the suffering — all very touching.

But in the major humanitarian crisis much closer to home – also created by the U.S. (massive starvation in Haiti due to U.S. government-subsidized rice exportations, which undercut Haitian rice growers and have destroyed its economy while enriching U.S. rice growers, to take just one of many examples) — the Biden administration doesn’t show a shred of humanity.

Here, Haitian refugees are beaten by men on horseback, corralled and forcibly deported back to the dungeon we created for them, all amidst the twin crises of a devastating earthquake and the assassination of the Haitian prime minister.

Perhaps the Biden administration should handle its business at home before telling anybody else what to do.

Conor Demers
Penn Hills

First Published: September 26, 2021, 4:00 a.m.