On Monday, August 30, 2021, a coalition of 344 organizations, in a letter to President Biden, said they are “alarmed” over deportation flights to Haiti even after the political crises and natural disasters that hit the Caribbean nation.
According to the signatories of the letter, with at least 130 Haitians have been deported to the country since the assassination of Moïse, including several infants.
“Since February 1, 2021, the Administration sent at least 37 deportation flights to Haiti, even as your officials acknowledged internally that those being deported ‘may face harm’ on return and the COVID-19 pandemic raged,” wrote the coalition
Adding “By March, the Biden-Harris Administration had removed more Haitians since taking office than during all of fiscal year 2020 [under Trump]
Although the Biden administration has taken some steps to protect Haitian migrants, including expanding the country’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation on May 22, 2021 the coalition calls on the US administration to allow Haitians stranded in Mexico to enter the United States and to grant protection to migrants who do not meet the conditions required for the TPS.
Finally, the signatories recall that the United States has previously halted deportations to countries deemed too dangerous or unstable, including Haiti. Under the Obama administration, while Biden was Vice President, temporary deportations to Haiti were halted twice : once in 2010 after the earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and again in October 2016 after Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti.
