Cory Mills evacuates Americans from Haiti amid gang violence emergency

Cory Mills evacuates individuals from Haiti. Image via Mills.

As gang violence creates a state of emergency in Haiti, U.S. Rep. Cory Mills facilitated an evacuation there.

The New Smyrna Beach Republican worked with a group of veterans to evacuate an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. The rescue, first reported on Fox News, included the evacuation of 10 U.S. citizens.

Mills told Florida Politics he personally paid for the evacuation operation from Haiti. He was on the flights transporting individuals off the island, sharing video footage from the helicopter and a still of rescued individuals.

“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 posted on X.

In the same post, he questioned why operations like this continue pulling Americans out of troubled regions while the U.S. government does not take similar action.

“This recent mission reiterates a disturbing reality that under President (Joe) Biden’s leadership American lives are continually jeopardized,” he wrote. “I have conducted rescue evacs of Americans multiple times when Joe Biden has deserted them. There’s a clear pattern of abandonment!”

Mills, while still just a candidate for Congress, conducted the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan amid a withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2021. Last year, he similarly conducted a rescue of citizens from Israel following the Oct. 7 attacks there by Hamas.

He asserted that the administration needs to do much more to rescue U.S. citizens stranded in dangerous regions of the world. He suggested the situation would be different if former President Donald Trump, the likely 2024 GOP nominee for President, wins the election this Fall.

“Americans at home and abroad are more unsafe under Biden than ever before,” Mills posted. “We need President Trump back in the White House as the world can’t afford four more years of Biden’s failed administration.”

Haiti has been consumed by crime to the point that the government is issuing a state of emergency and curfew in Port-au-Prince. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry is not in the country right now, and U.S. diplomats warn he could be in danger if he returns.

The crisis could have a greater effect on Florida than any other state. About 49% of all Haitian Americans in the U.S. reside in Florida, according to the Migration Policy Institute.