Biden must stop deportations to Haiti. It’s inhumane — and breaks his promise to us
During Joe Biden’s campaign for president, in which many Haitian Americans worked hard for his election, he promised to stop deporting Haitians from the United States. But his administration has deported or expelled between 1,300 and 1,500 Haitian people — including many hundreds of infants and small children — on more than 24 flights since Feb. 1, with no end in sight.
These add up to are more expulsions in a matter of weeks than President Trump did in a full year, according to a report published on Thursday by a coalition of immigrant rights groups.
We respectfully ask the president to stop these flights.
These expulsions are wrong on many levels.
First and foremost, they are inhumane and unsafe given Haiti’s grave political, constitutional, social, and consequent economic crisis. President Jovenel Moïse’s repression, authoritarian usurpation of powers and continuing rule in the face of citizens’ united opposition are just a few elements of the crisis.
Moïse lacks all credibility. There haven’t been legislative or mayoral elections in years; Moïse has scheduled an illegal referendum to make substantial changes to Haiti’s constitution that would give the president immense, unchecked power; he is implicated in massive corruption; and he is collaborating with criminal gangs that have committed many documented massacres, political assassinations and daily kidnappings.
The crisis has reached unprecedented levels — kidnappings alone have increased 200 percent — and have everyday Haitians cowering in their homes, afraid even to send their children to school.
In an extraordinary March 12 hearing on Haiti of the full U.S. House Committee on Foreign Relations, there was bipartisan agreement that Haiti expulsions are wrong given these conditions and that Haiti cannot hold credible elections under Moïse administration.
These conditions fully warrant Haiti’s redesignation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is appropriate when extraordinary conditions in a nation make it unsafe to deport people there.
There is bipartisan support for this. On March 12, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Western Hemisphere subcommittee, joined committee chairman Bob Menendez in urging the redesignation of Haiti for TPS. At least 61 members of Congress, the Center for American Progress, America’s Voice, 800 faith leaders and hundreds of other organizations have urged this, too, because current conditions make deportations to Haiti unsafe.
At least 400 other organizations, three major editorial boards — including that of the Miami Herald — and many others have urged an end to the Haiti expulsion flights, which are also wrong given Biden’s campaign promise to end them and his commitment to racial equity. These black lives matter, too.
We understand that his administration faces challenges at our border with Mexico in replacing Trump’s inhumane policies in a manner that continues to protect our borders. But the wholesale expulsion of Haitian men, women and children to the conditions we have described — without any asylum processing — is simply unconscionable.
Biden must keep his promise to our community to stop these expulsions. And recognize Haiti’s extraordinary suffering by immediately redesignating Haiti for TPS.
Marleine Bastien is executive director of the Family Action Network Movement. Alix Desulme represents District 4 on the North Miami City Council.