Bahamian Evacuees Denied Entry Into The United States

Source: The Washington Post / Getty

We’re not going to hold you. Donald Trump, the 45^th president of the United States, is racist. It’s old news. And as far as American presidents go, he’s certainly not the first to suffer from this ailment. But in this modern age, his blatant discrimination to all people of color is appalling—to some of us.

We’ve seen it in his rhetoric about Mexicans, his Muslim ban, his likening Black women to “a dog,” and his characterization that nations with citizens of color are “sh*thole countries.”

Homeboy is a whole problem.

So really, it should come as no surprise that when another island nation was in need of help from the United States government that Trump was nowhere to be found.

Last week, Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas. The category five hurricane claimed the lives of 45 people and that number is expected to increase. 70,000 people have been left homeless and hundreds are attempting to evacuate.

According to CNN, over the weekend, almost 1,500 evacuees boarded  the Grand Celebration humanitarian cruise ship and eventually landed in Palm Beach, Florida. All of them had the proper documentation to enter the country.

But on Sunday, things changed. A CNN affiliate reporter Brian Entin reported that on a U.S. bound ferry boat an anonymous person made an announcement that anyone traveling to the United States without a visa would have to disembark.

A woman told Entin that as many as 130 people left the boat as a result of the announcement.

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that there was a ship leaving the Bahamas and that the operator of the vessel communicated with government officials in Nassau and the United States.

On the CBP website, it claims that visas are not required for Bahamian residents flying into the United States if they do not have a criminal record and a valid passport. But the rules about citizens coming by boat are unclear.

Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke tweeted, “This is the height of cruelty — denying help to those who need it most. This administration has said the words on the Statue of Liberty should be rewritten, and in their actions, they are already changing who we are as a country.”