50,000 Haitians in US face deportation

REFUGEES from the poorest nation in the Americas could soon find themselves in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump’s administration as immigration authorities publicly weigh ending temporary protections for 50 000 Haitians living in the US.

Residents of the impoverished Caribbean nation were extended temporary protected status (TPS) after the 2010 earthquake that ruined Haiti’s infrastructure and claimed nearly 200 000 lives.

In a letter that circulated through the press last week, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services James McCament suggested the temporary protections be tapered off after January for a “period of orderly transition”, after which Haitian migrants in the US would lose their right to work and reside in the country.

US immigration authorities grant TPS to foreign nationals facing displacement or danger from natural disasters, epidemics or political instability if they are deported to their home countries. Haitians have repeatedly been granted the reprieve, renewed every 18 months since the quake.

McCament argues that conditions on the island have improved enough to end protections.

The statement echoes similar messaging from the Obama administration, whose Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said in October conditions in Haiti had “improved sufficiently to permit the US government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis”.

According to US immigration officials, deportations of Haitians rocketed in November, reversing a policy whereby unauthorised Haitians were allowed to stay in the US provided they did not have a criminal record.

The elimination of temporary protections for tens of thousands of migrants would open the door to the mass detention and expulsion of Haitian refugees.

This would escalate a dire situation in a country plagued by cholera, poverty, foreign occupation and the aftermath of last year’s Hurricane Matthew that displaced thousands of people.