WASHINGTON — As rescue crews continue to dig through the rubble in Venezuela in search of survivors, South Florida lawmakers on Capitol Hill are calling on the Trump administration to send more help in the wake of the devastating earthquakes.
“Tens of thousands of people are missing, two thousand are dead,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz.
Moskowitz is asking the U.S. State Department to deploy hospital ships to Venezuela.
The USNS Comfort and Mercy are fully equipped floating emergency rooms, a resource Moskowitz says is desperately needed on the ground.
“There are two specific resources we have that are closer than any other country,” he said. “Hundreds of doctors, hundreds of nurses, surgery rooms, triage, they could immediately help people get medical attention (and) save lives.”
Meanwhile, South Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez said he has major concerns about how Venezuela’s interim government is responding the disaster response and raising doubts about acting president Delcy Rodriguez’s handling of U.S. aid.
“This government has proven to me that they’re incapable, they’re incompetent, but they’re also thieves, so let’s not kid ourselves,” said Gimenez.
Among the missing and feared dead are a group of more than 100 migrants who had just been deported from the United States on a flight from South Florida.
They were reportedly being held in a hotel just outside of Caracas when the quakes hit.
South Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the Trump administration should pause deportations to Venezuela.
“He should reinstate Venezuelan TPS today,” she said. “There were two major earthquakes, more than 7 points on the Richter scale.”
TPS was not a partisan issues, as Gimenez said this is the exact kind of disaster the TPS program is made for, and he plans to encourage President Trump to reinstate those protections in the wake of these earthquakes.
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