FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., helped rescue a group of Americans from Haiti, marking the third rescue of U.S. citizens during a foreign crisis under the Biden administration.
“I am proud to report that my team and I were successful in evacuating [and] rescuing a trapped, and at risk group of Americans from ‘Have Faith Orphanage’ in Haiti last night,” Mills told Fox News Digital.
“This mission reiterates a disturbing reality under President Biden’s leadership: American lives are continually jeopardized,” Mills said. “I have led missions to rescue Americans multiple times when Joe Biden has deserted them.”
“There’s a clear pattern of abandonment,” Mills stressed, citing his rescue missions in Afghanistan following the U.S. military drawdown in 2021 and rescue of Americans from Israel in late 2023. “Yet again this group was left behind by Biden and his State Department after requesting their help in country.”
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The 10 Americans evacuated from Haiti had worked at the Have Faith Orphanage in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. The U.S. military sent forces to Haiti over the weekend at the request of the State Department to bolster security at the U.S. Embassy and airlifted non-essential personnel – such as family of diplomats – who had remained after an order for such individuals to evacuate last summer.
Rep. Cory Mills, Brian Young and the Americans they evacuated from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Office of Rep. Cory Mills)
The State Department had previously told Fox News Digital that it would continue to monitor the situation and consider its options, including the deployment of forces to help with security at the U.S. Embassy.
“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, adding, “The U.S. Embassy remains open with limited staffing and will continue to provide assistance to U.S. citizens as necessary.”
In a briefing on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said he did not have a firm number on the total number of Americans still in Haiti who are trying to leave.
“U.S. citizens wishing to depart Port-au-Prince should monitor local news and information on security conditions from commercial transportation providers and should arrange to leave Haiti when security conditions and commercial transportation options permit doing so,” the spokesperson explained.
Rep. Cory Mills with teammate Brian Young and two pilots who helped execute the evacuation of 10 Americans from Haiti. (Office of Rep. Cory Mills)
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. “welcomed” the decision taken by Caribbean leaders during a meeting in Jamaica, which saw Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry announce his resignation in order to facilitate a transitional presidential council and a new leader who might better grapple with the immense unrest and violence across the country.
“The government that I’m running cannot remain insensitive in this situation. There is no sacrifice that is too big for our country,” Henry said in a recorded statement. “The government I’m running will remove itself immediately after the installation of the council.”
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Sullivan also said that “ultimately, decisions about Haiti should be made by the Haitian people,” applauding Henry’s resignation for taking into account “the best interests of the Haitian people.” He continued to stress that the discussions about operations and efforts to aid Haiti have proven positive and encouraging, with officials “hopeful” Kenya’s police coalition from Eastern Africa will eventually occur and help bring order to the island nation.
The Jamaica conference agreed to provide $100 million to help fund Kenya’s police coalition and $33 million for additional assistance. Sullivan said the leaders agreed to other contingencies but that the current agreed measures remain the main focus.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry attends a public lecture at the United States International University in Nairobi, Kenya, March 1, 2024. The prime minister had traveled to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country to fight gangs in Haiti. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku, File)
On the congressman’s mission to evacuate the 10 Americans, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement that she is “eternally grateful” to Mills for rescuing the Americans, some of whom reside in her constituency.
“Those stranded in war-torn Haiti were left hopeless and without options,” McClain said. “The State Department’s answer was to sign up for a notification system and wait for alerts: They offered no real assistance, no opportunities to be rescued, and no plan whatsoever.”
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“That’s why Rep. Mills and I had to take the matter into our own hands and save stranded American citizens,” McClain added. “We worked around the clock to do the work the Biden administration was unwilling to do, and I am eternally grateful for the heroic actions my friend Cory Mills took in traveling to Haiti and physically rescuing Michiganders that were left behind.”
“I am pleased that we were able to save so many, but countless more remain,” McClain warned. “I am infuriated that the State Department has so carelessly left so many Americans to die in Haiti.”
An armed gang member rolls a tire to burn at a roadblock in the Delmas 6 neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Mills, a combat veteran, helped evacuate an American family overland from Afghanistan with help from a team of military veterans – claiming that his original plan of an air evacuation could have rescued over two dozen Americans – and pulled 32 Americans out of Israel while travel was shut down and countries scrambled to get their citizens out of the country.
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Mills served in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division before winning his House seat in 2023. In an op-ed for Fox News Digital, Mills chastised the administration for making a “promise to never” leave behind Americans but prioritized other concerns at the time.
Asked about Mill’s criticism, neither the State Department nor the National Security Council responded to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication.
Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard, Bradford Betz, Charles Creitz and Amy Nelson contributed to this report.
