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Tell President Biden: Stop Deporting Haitians
Posted on Mar 09 2021
Since the Biden administration took office, more than 15 deportation flights have sent more than 900 people back to Haiti. Pregnant women and children as young as two years old have been deported. These deportations continue while Haiti is in the middle of a violent political crisis and while the country remains highly vulnerable to a devastating coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus remains rampant in U.S. immigration processing and detention centers and can be easily brought back to impoverished communities in Haiti. The Haitian government has broken down and is unable to protect its citizens from gang violence or public health crisis.
Call President Biden at the White House comment line: 202-456-1111. Tell him to stop deportations to Haiti now.
Legal background: A Texas judge blocked the Biden Administration’s 100-day moratorium on deportations. The Biden Administration also left in place a Title 42 “public health” order for speedy removal without hearings for anyone crossing the border. That CDC order was entered under pressure from the Trump administration, over the objections of public health staff in the CDC, and despite complete lack of any public health justification.
Factual background: Buzzfeed News reports that administration officials acknowledge the dangers facing Haitian deportees.
“Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged internally that deported Haitian immigrants “may face harm” upon returning to their home country due to violent crime and the political instability that has rocked the country in recent months…
“The report obtained by BuzzFeed News responds to a request from the meeting: ‘Embassy Port au Prince briefed on the deterioration of rule of law in Haiti in recent months, and ongoing gang violence and human rights violations in the country. In light of these developments, DHS US Citizenship and Immigration Services will reevaluate whether expelled Haitians would face harm upon return to Haiti,” it begins, before declaring that ‘based on a recent analysis of conditions in Haiti, USCIS believes that Haitians removed to Haiti may face harm upon return to Haiti as follows.’”
Haiti’s current president, Jovenal Moïse, continues in power although his term ended in February. Protests—often violently suppressed—challenge his rule by executive orders, his dissolution of parliament a year ago, and his refusal to hold elections for local governments and the country’s legislative body since 2018. He has unilaterally “retired” three members of the nation’s Supreme Court, saying he did so to “protect” the court. Protesters also cite what they call rampant government corruption and gang violence.
Add to the political disaster the country’s failure to recover after a devastating 2010 earthquake that killed 250,000 people and displaced 1.5 million: half of the country’s entire population. Before the 2010 earthquake, Haiti was one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. After the earthquake, recovery seemed impossible. Cholera, brought to Haiti by UN peacekeepers in 2010, infected 800,000 Haitians and killed more than 10,000. Since 2010, three hurricanes and another earthquake have further delayed recovery. Ongoing human rights abuses include massacres, gender-based violence, and child labor amounting to near-slavery.
Call President Biden at the White House comment line: 202-456-1111. Tell him to stop deportations to Haiti now.