The United States military has launched emergency plans first concocted in 1960 in response to a record breaking wave of migrants attempting to enter the United States from Cuba and Haiti this year.
James Judge, a Florida Republican who is running for Rep. Kathy Castor’s seat in the U.S. House and is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, highlighted the extent of the emergency and the military’s response, Operation Vigilant Sentry, in a news release posted to his campaign website.
More than 230,000 Cubans and 42,000 Haitians have attempted to cross into the United States since the beginning of the year, Judge highlighted, explaining that the number of attempted crossings outpaces previous immigration waves.
BREAKING: the largest Cuban exodus in history is happening now. The U.S. military has enacted the emergency plan called Operation Vigilant Sentry.
— James Judge (@jamespjudge) September 18, 2022
According to Judge, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Secret Service, and multiple state and local agencies are involved in the military’s emergency response.
“To put things in perspective, we saw about 125,000 Cuban migrants during the Mariel Boatlift mass-migration in 1980 when Castro emptied the jails,” Judge said in a statement.
He added, “These numbers are absolutely unprecedented, and the fact that DHS and the U.S. military have enacted a last resort emergency plan, which has been rehearsed for decades, demonstrates the seriousness of the situation.”
LARGEST EXODUS IN CUBAN HISTORY! https://t.co/M3oyyvA9S3 pic.twitter.com/1UsV4gs0Mj
— James Judge (@jamespjudge) September 18, 2022
“What’s most shocking is that the U.S. military is literally conducting a massive operation just a few miles south of Margaritaville and Sloppy Joes, and no one is talking about it on any of the major news outlets,” Judge said.
Judge pointed the blame at Biden: “This is a direct result of failed leadership and failed foreign policies, or complete lack thereof, by the Biden administration.”
“The immigration problem has spiraled out of control to the point that as we speak, the U.S. military is mobilizing ships and aircraft down to the Florida Straits, while the Biden administration is lying to the public saying – there’s nothing to see here folks, our border is secure,” Judge said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that 180,000 Cubans have successfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border so far this year, reported El Pais.
Of those who attempted to cross by sea, about 3,000 made it into the United States.
As Judge noted, the number of Cubans who entered the country has dwarfed the 125,000 Cubans who entered the country in the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, but it also far eclipses the 35,000 Cubans who came to the country after the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis, El Pais reported.
