Episode 25 - Remembering the Haiti Quake, and Honoring Heroes who Help

It's Friday, and Gosh, there's a lot to cover. Tomorrow marks the nine-year anniversary of the terrible earthquake that struck the island nation of Haiti in 2010.  Over 250,000 people lost their lives in one of the most horrific natural disasters of our lifetime.  Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the lack of building codes resulted in more than ninety percent of the buildings collapsing across the heavily populated parts of the country.  Tens of thousands of people were entombed in their own houses, businesses, and places of worship when the massive 7.0 earthquake hit.  The shock and confusion in the aftermath of the quake led many Haitians to literally believe the end of the world had come. As bodies were pulled from the rubble, there was often nowhere to put them but to stack them up in the middle of the streets, where they rotted in the tropical heat for days until the people had no choice but to set them on fire.

 

The scene I found when I arrived in Haiti forty-eight hours after the quake was truly apocalyptic.  There were no utilities, no services.  Tens of thousands of people were buried alive in their homes and there wasn't anywhere near enough heavy machinery to rescue them.  Family members clawed at the rubble with their bare hands in a futile effort to save those trapped inside.  Many eventually succumbed to exhaustion and exposure.  

 

Aid agencies rushed to deliver food, water, and medical care to the devastated areas, but the scale of the wreckage led to logistical snafus that left many without food or clean water for weeks, leading to a kind of zombie-apocalypse desperation among the people that caused them to attack and pilfer aid convoys and even fight and  kill each other for the aid being distributed.

 

I've seen a lot of mayhem in my career.  But Haiti is by far the most complete tragedy I've ever witnessed.  It was a defining moment for a lot of people - both Haitians and for those who rendered aid.  

 

Next week I'm going to share with you some of the stories I told in the two weeks or so I spent on the ground, to honor and remember those who died and those who gave whatever they could to alleviate the suffering.  I hope you'll check it out and share it with your friends.

 

Well, down on the southern border the migrant crisis continues to unfold, with over 2000 illegal crossers being apprehended every day.  The US Customs and Border Patrol officers are being overwhelmed by the numbers, and there are reportedly even more migrants rushing to take advantage of the crisis to get into the US.  

 

The US military currently has several thousand active duty and guard troops augmenting the Border Patrol and putting their manpower to work in many different ways.  Today I want to bring you some of their stories.  Check this out.

 

[guard pilots on the border]

 

The US CBP Air and Marine Operations Assets Division have what I am told constitutes the fifth largest air force in the world. With everything from fixed wing to helicopters to drones to even blimps, they do a lot to help safeguard our country.  But with more than six thousand miles of border to cover in both the south and the North, the additional aircraft support being brought by the US military is really making a difference.

 

Now you are hearing a lot of rhetoric bandied about over Trump's border wall.  He has agreed to compromise by not building a thirty-foot concrete barrier and instead improve the current barrier with an eighteen-foot metal post-style fence.  Which will help tremendously but won't be nearly as effective as the original designs?  We are already seeing lots of migrants scale the eighteen-foot fences in California. and many have been injured jumping into the US from them.  So the military is also helping with deterring these migrants by installing concertina wire on the US side of the fence.

 

[engineer battalion helps out on the border]

 

The clown show that we've seen play out over border security is quickly turning into a horror movie.  While politicians in Washington wallow in their ridiculous rhetoric, great harm is coming to Americans because of the wave of illegal migration being encouraged by the Left.  What do I mean?  In New York Mayor Deblasio just unveiled a program to offer free health care to illegal migrants that will cover over 300,000 illegals immediately.  

 

According to Immigration Law and Crime, 

 

• We are now averaging 60,000 illegal and inadmissible immigrants a month on our southern border.
• 17,000 adults at the border with existing criminal records were arrested by Customs & Border Protection (CBP) and border agents in FY18.
• 3,755 known or suspected terrorists were prevented from traveling to or entering the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security.
• ICE officers arrested approximately 235,000 aliens on criminal charges or convictions within the interior of the United States in FY17 and FY18.
• 6,000 gang members, including MS-13, apprehended at the southern border and removed by ICE.
• 38% increase in methamphetamine, 22% increase in heroin, 73% increase in fentanyl between FY17 and FY18.
• CBP helped seize 282,000 pounds of cocaine, 248,000 pounds of methamphetamine, 6,500 pounds of heroin, and 2,400 pounds of fentanyl in FY18.
• Each year criminal organizations gain $2.5 billion in profit from human trafficking.
• The immigration court backlog is nearly 800,000 cases and two-thirds of the judges who rule on these cases just got furloughed by the government shutdown. 

On Wednesday I was on Tony Perkins' Nationally Syndicated radio show "Washington Watch."  And I pointed out that the Democrats' refusal to secure the border is leading to more families being separated because poor Latin Americans are being led to believe that if they bring one of their children along on the treacherous journey to the United States, they will be allowed to go free immediately into the US.  Those who cross illegally are apprehended and given a court date to return for an asylum hearing, and with the backlog, this date is often three years in the future.  So this man has left his remaining family in Honduras and now cannot leave the United States even to go visit them, or else he forfeits his place in line for an asylum hearing.  Three years later, many of them have moved on and built new lives and sometimes new families in the United States.

 

Wouldn't it be better to look for ways to increase opportunity and quality of life for people in Latin America, to make it easier for them to stay home rather than tear apart their families?  A couple of years ago I met a Pakistani man named Imran Gilani in a migrant camp in the Darien Jungle of southern Panama.  He and forty other Pakistanis had just completed the arduous trek through the Darien from Colombia.  Listen to his story.

 

[Imran Gilani]

 

"We've seen between 6,000 and 6,500 this year so far between January and May. Over the past five years, we've seen a massive exodus of migrants crossing our frontiers with the intention of making it to North America.  The jungle is very unhealthy.  You'll find many adverse situations like sicknesses, wild animals and even criminals.  

 

There are approximately 266 miles of border between our Pacific and Caribbean coasts.  We are maintaining constant patrols and trying to keep a presence in every community in the area."

 

I kept in touch with Imran as he made his way north to the United States.  Once he crossed the border, he was detained in Mexicali, California in a prison for about six months before he could raise a $12,000 bond.  Once he did, he was allowed to go free, and today is living in Chicago.  His wife and son are still in Pakistan, waiting for him to be granted asylum, but his hearing is not until 2022 if I remember right.  I am trying to get in touch with Imran and get an update, and if I do I will bring it to you here.

 

Well, that's all we have for today folks.  I hope you are enjoying the show.  If you are, please subscribe over at Patreon.com/hotzone.  

 

I'll be traveling next week but will try to keep sending you great episodes every day.  So have a good weekend, and we'll see you back here on Monday on the Hot Zone.