Sparks flew during the House Committee on Appropriations Wednesday when Pennsylvania Congressman Guy Reschenthaler challenged Secretary of State Anthony Blinken about the State Department’s handling of American tourists detained on the islands of Turks and Caicos.
“Chairman, I appreciate Mr. Secretary. Thanks for being here. Mr. Secretary. It's my estimation that your department is just weak, it's feckless. And at best, your department is incompetent,” said Reschenthaler, R-Pa.
Blinken was testifying before the committee Wednesday when Reschenthaler confronted him. Reschenthaler was part of the bipartisan congressional delegation that met with officials in Turks and Caicos Monday in an effort to free the four Americans who are detained there on ammunition charges. All of them say they mistakenly brought ammunition in their luggage while on vacation.
The charge comes with a potential 12-year minimum prison sentence.
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“They've been treated atrociously by a government that represents 60,000 people in a geography that has a landmass that's roughly 2.5 size, the size of DC. This is not even a sovereign nation. It's a protector to the British Empire or the UK and you can't tell me that you can't put a do not travel today on Turks and Caicos and bring the four Americans that still remain in Turks and Caicos home. It would take one order to bring four Americans home,” said Reschenthaler.
Reschenthaler said State Department officials did not contact his constituted Bryan Hagerich until two months into his detention. Hagerich is from Somerset, Pennsylvania, and was arrested in February.
Reschenthaler said State Department officials also didn’t visit Sharitta Grier, the latest American who was arrested after a Mother’s Day trip with her daughter. He told Blinken Grier was chained to a desk for three days and it was the other American detainees who brought her food, water and blankets.
“I'm just really baffled by again, the weakness and incompetence of your department. You can prove me wrong. Issue that do not travel to Turks and Caicos today. Bring the Americans home. I yield back,” said Reschenthaler.
I'm just really baffled by again, the weakness and incompetence of your department. You can prove me wrong. Issue that do not travel to Turks and Caicos today. Bring the Americans home.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-PA
“I welcome working with you on this and please bring the information forward to me,” Blinken responded. “We have a State Department and extraordinary men and women who every single day are working to get arbitrarily detained Americans back home with their families and loved ones.”
“We've had more success in this administration and doing that than in any previous administration….. we brought Americans home from all over the world. And it's our number one priority,” said Blinken “I will apologize to no one for the efforts that our people make every day to help Americans who are in jeopardy anywhere around the world.”
The State Department has previously apologized to the family of Michael Grim, an American man who was sentenced to eight months in prison on Turks and Caicos Islands last year for possession of ammunition, for the handling of his case.
In an interview Tuesday, Reschenthaler said the Turks and Caicos government is targeting Americans. He added that a 12-year mandatory minimum is unheard of for a case where there was no intent to break the law.
American Tyler Wenrich, who was charged last month pleaded guilty Tuesday and the judge indicated a decision will be delivered within seven days.
Hagerich will be sentenced on Friday. The judge could hand down a sentence of anything from time served to 12 years minimum in prison.
Turks and Caicos Islands Premier C. Washington Misick has stated that exceptional circumstances in previous cases not involving Americans resulted in sentences under the 12-year minimum. The governor, Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam, said Americans are not targeted by the Turks and Caicos justice system.
The Turks and Caicos attorney general and the director of public prosecutions issued a statement last month saying the islands’ firearm ordinance “requires the Supreme Court to impose a mandatory minimum sentence and fine for certain firearm offenses, except in circumstances where the court finds that there are exceptional circumstances….”
The statement went on to add that there have been five separate cases within a two-year period where the Supreme Court on the islands has found exceptional circumstances. Four of the offenders were fined and one was given a custodial sentence below the mandatory minimum.
