US President Joe Biden’s remark about Haiti from a 1994 interview with PBS has resurfaced amid mass deportations of Haitian migrants. The Democrat, senator for Delaware, then is seen saying “it would not matter if Haiti sunk” in the 40 second video clip. 

Joe Biden was asked if then president Bill Clinton would invade Haiti following the 1991 military coup against then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

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“If Haiti, a god awful thing to say, if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest,” he responded to TV host Charlie Rose. 

Aristide had been ousted three year prior by a military coup and was ruled by dictator Raoul Cedras. The very next week after Biden’s interview, the US launched Operation Uphold Democracy and sent 25,000 troops in Haiti.

The video, around for years, was shared widely on social media as Haitian migrants have be facing forceful expulsions from the Texas border. 

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The White House is facing sharp bipartisan condemnation. Democrats and many pro-immigration groups say efforts to expel thousands of Haitians without a chance to seek asylum violates American principles and their anger has been fueled by images that went viral this week of Border Patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics against the migrants.

The expulsion flights to Haiti began Sunday and there were 10 by the end of Tuesday, according to Haitian officials. U.S. officials say they are ramping up to seven flights a day, which would mark one of the swiftest, large-scale expulsions from the U.S. in decades.

  The United States’ special envoy to Haiti Ambassador Daniel Foote resigned amid large-scale deportation of Haitian migrants to their homeland. In a note to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Foote wrote that he ‘will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision’.   

With inputs from the Associated Press