Reschenthaler Pushes Blinken For Action On Turks And Caicos Detainees: 'We Need That Do Not Travel’
On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) spoke about the dire situation of U.S. citizens who have been detained in Turks and Caicos, his discussions with a constituent who is one of those detainees, and what he wants the Biden Administration to do.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 He did say he did take issue with your comments. Obviously, he said the Biden administration has had more success in bringing home arbitrarily detained Americans than in any other previous administration.
00:11 And that quote, we brought Americans home from all over the world. And it's our number one priority. As you mentioned, they did bring home Britney Greiner, five Americans from Iran, 10 Americans from Venezuela, just name a few places.
00:22 So you're saying, but in this situation, they're not doing enough. Well, let's talk about those other situations, because they did bring Britney Greiner home.
00:30 And I'm very happy for that. But it cost us the merchant of death, one of the most dangerous men in the world who should never have been released.
00:37 And if he was released, he should have been released for Mark Fogle. He's the teacher from Pittsburgh that's wrongfully detained.
00:42 He should have been released for for Wheelan, the U.S. Marine that's wrongfully detained in Russia.
00:47 I don't think Gershwin was detained at that period of time, but we should have got all our wrongfully detained Americans home from Russia for the merchant of death.
00:55 If you want to talk about Iran, they got the prisoners back from Iran because they released six billion dollars of assets that the Iranians had frozen.
01:04 And I believe South Korea and what happened right after that, the Iranians used that money to fund the Houthi rebels, to fund Hamas, to fund Hezbollah.
01:11 And you had the attacks on October, October 7th. It was a complete disaster. And as far as Venezuela, because the Biden administration has declared war on American energy,
01:20 specifically natural gas, they go to Venezuela, they cut this deal, they ease sanctions on Venezuela so the Venezuelan economy can improve and Biden can flood the U.S.
01:29 with Venezuelan energy instead of using the energy that we have here in the United States.
01:34 So even in the situations where they've had prisoners exchanged, it's been a colossal failure, an absolute joke.
01:39 And it's weakened America, not only vis-a-vis our allies like Israel, for example, who's not really happy about the six billion dollars being released from Iran,
01:48 but it's also made us a laughingstock that we're refusing to use our own energy and going to dictators in Venezuela, begging for them to produce more oil and lifting the sanctions on them.
01:58 So he can hide behind those disasters. Again, I'm happy all those Americans are home, but the price they have paid is absolutely absurd.
02:05 If we just showed some strength and vitality in our foreign affairs, in our position in the world, we would be able to secure the release of all these Americans that are wrongfully detained.
02:15 I want to talk about just a few of them who are wrong or are detained in Turks and Caicos.
02:21 Your constituent, you noted he's a dad. He has no past criminal record. There was also a grandma who said, hey, I accidentally was carrying this ammunition.
02:29 Now these people are facing 12 years going forward.
02:33 What are you going to do as a member of Congress to ensure these types of situations don't happen again?
02:39 Well, what we need is that we need that do not travel. And when you ask the State Department to do that, they say we only reserve do not travels for countries like Russia and Iran and North Korea.
02:48 The difference here, Brittany, is that when an American travels to North Korea, they know what's at stake.
02:54 They know to write a will and leave behind a DNA sample because chances are they're going to be detained.
02:59 When an American goes to Turks and Caicos, they think they're going to some beaches, resorts or some sandals resort at a friendly nation where there's no chance of having having being wrongfully detained.
03:10 That's why it's so important that we elevate this to a level five, because Americans don't suspect this in the State Department is not warning them of it.
03:17 And again, all the Americans that have been detained, I believe there's six in total.
03:21 One has already served eight months, by the way, in that prison.
03:24 They've all pled guilty to having the ammunition.
03:27 The difference is that they did not intend to bring the ammunition in.
03:30 They were all left in a bag accidentally, meaning legally speaking, there's no men's right, meaning there's no evil mind.
03:36 There's no intent to break the law.
03:38 And for that for that reason, that should be taken into account and they should pay a fine and get released, not have 12 year sentences hanging over their head.
03:45 And if I could just say this about my constituent, he's burned through over one hundred thousand dollars in his savings, his children's college education fund.
03:53 I mean, even though these Americans are detained and they're on house arrest now, thankfully, they're they're all on house arrest, but they're still burning through their savings.
04:01 Turks and Caicos is incredibly expensive.
04:03 I got a cup of coffee one morning, just a black cup of coffee.
04:05 It was nine dollars.
04:07 One of the detainees told me that a bag of Oreos is 15 to 17 dollars.
04:12 You have one that I believe is from Oklahoma telling me that he's he's living on rice and hot dogs because it's all he can afford.
04:19 He went to Turks and Caicos on a bachelor party and he's been detained there now for four weeks.
04:24 So the financial position that our Americans are in is very dire.
04:28 Not not to mention that if they get sent to this prison, there's huge concerns for their safety in a Turks and Caicos jail.
04:36 Congressman, I really appreciate the conversation today.
04:38 You're welcome back anytime.
04:40 And as the situation develops, I hope you join me again.
04:43 Thank you. Thank you, Brittany.
04:45 I really appreciate it. And can I just say one final thing?
04:47 The Turks and Caicos government says that they're just applying this law to everybody and Americans aren't treated any differently.
04:53 That's a blatant lie.
04:55 They had a Brazilian that was caught in a very similar circumstance with a few rounds of ammunition.
04:59 That Brazilian that Brazilian was allowed to leave that day after paying a fine and returned to Brazil.
05:04 When we had a grandmother from Florida that had two rounds of nine millimeter in her purse, that grandmother was chained to a desk for three days,
05:11 totally dependent on the other Americans to bring her food, water, blankets, a pillow.
05:15 So it's very clear that the Turks and Caicos government is targeting American citizens and that we're paying the price.
05:21 And again, this is all because of the Biden administration's weakness and failure to act.
05:26 Really quick, just one question.
05:28 When they're confronted with this saying, hey, there's a disparity here in the way you're treating Americans versus people from other countries.
05:35 What's their response?
05:38 They just totally they blow it off and they change the subject.
05:41 We brought it up at meeting after meeting. And by the way, our own State Department did that.
05:45 I asked the State Department officials if they knew of any other any other cases where non-U.S. citizens were detained.
05:51 And they told me, no. I then brought up the Brazilian case and they and then they knew about the case.
05:57 They were obviously lying to the congressional delegation and withholding information.
06:02 It was it was very clear that the State Department officials were either either didn't know their facts and the congressional delegation knew the facts better than the State Department did,
06:11 or that they were withholding information from the congressional delegation to present Turks and Caicos in the best light possible.
06:18 Either they're either misled. They're either misleading and lying to us or they just don't know the facts.
06:24 are absolutely horrifying and this is happening under Biden and Blinken.