[HOUSE] Haitian Refugee Bill
Posted: 01:00:58 Thursday, 26 March, 2015
Representative Christopher Miller, Texas (R-L) wrote:Having presented a bill on the issue of Haiti itself, we need to resolve the immediate concerns of the Haitian refugees brimming in our country. The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare have obviously collapsed to put it lightly, and Congress needs to take action.
Allow me to, again, quote recent news reports:
SpoilerShow*Mountain States Coast Guard cutters report that they are intercepting thousands of Haitian refugees on makeshift rafts, fleeing the violence and disaster-stricken areas. Various clashes have been reported between these refugees and the United States Coast Guard, who reports indicate are shepherding the rafts (by means of bow waves and machine gun fire) towards Mountain American waters. So far the Coast Guard has rounded them up and contained them in refugee camps just in-land on the Louisiana coast with the Louisiana National Guard surrounding the camps.*The media focuses heavily on the atrocities in Haiti, as well as the suffering in refugee camps and the international focus of the Socialist Party. Much of their discussion is also directed in opposition to the Republican Party, who they denounce as callous.*Secretary of the Interior, Brendan Moskin, and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Mathias Oliver, hold a joint press conference, where they announce plans underway to assist the Haitian refugee camps in Louisiana. Coordinating with the CDC, they provide vaccination assistance, particularly to small children, and dietary aid - sending food, blankets, medicine, clean water, and so on. With the National Guard keeping order, all looks to be well, save for the continuing flow of refugees into the camps. Present estimates put the number of refugees at having just topped 10,000, with possibly as many as 15,000 present.
*President Roux-Johnson visits some of the refugee camps, escorted by National Guardsmen, witnessing first hand the conditions there, making use of his French skills (being a Louisiana native) to converse briefly with those taking shelter. He gives a speech at the camp, announcing aid to Haiti (while lamenting Congress’s failure to approve aid), condemning the Tonton Macoutes, and announcing the deployment of the National Guard and the Coast Guard to protect refugees and ensure makeshift rafts are safe from US harassment.
*Refugee advocacy groups present in the Louisiana camps are invited back to Wallace House with the President, where they conduct highly publicised meetings about their plans both domestically and abroad.An immediate, short-term solution is needed. I therefore propose the following:*Conditions in the Haitian refugee camps remain generally poor, with an unusually high number of orphans, and disease continuing to spread due to cramped conditions, despite the intervention of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Interior Department continues to fight to combat the issues, as well as containing the refugees from spreading out as best they can. They release their own audit for the population of the camps, being at some 15,592 by their count, though likely higher as some may have avoided being counted, and others may have evaded the camps altogether.
- Seeing the drastic humanitarian situation for many of the Haitian refugees in Louisiana, provides one credit's worth of medical aid - in the form of direct treatment, dietary supplements, vaccinations, health checks to monitor disease spread, etc. - to the refugees. Special care will be provided to children.
- Petitioning the Commander-in-Chief to order that control of the refugee camps be transferred from the Louisiana National Guard to the Mountain States Army, to allow the National Guard to focus on relieving currently arriving refugees as previously ordered and the Army to relocate the refugees.
- Transferring, at the cost of one credit, after a detailed identity check to ensure no record of criminal activity can be located and that all families remain intact, all refugees currently in the Louisiana facilities to various non-classified military bases around the country, where new, safer and healthier facilities for them will be erected, [OOC: As was done during the Cuban boatlift]
- Noting the wide spread of refugees throughout the region, the possibility of reuniting displaced families, and the close political connection between several Latin American states, deciding to provide the safe transport of any Haitian citizens that wish to leave the MSA to any of the following states: Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Workers' Republic. If any Haitians wish to return to their country of origin (or any other state), this may be done if extraordinary circumstances motivating this are extant. This offer will be provided to refugees both inside and outside of the camps. These transfers will be financed through the funding allocated for domestic transfer - if insufficient, another credit will be allocated for this purpose.
- Distributing individual identification papers, which will function as emergency travel documents, to all Haitian refugees who are leaving the Mountain States, to facilitate their safe departure and arrival abroad.