Halting Haitian deportations is a justified, moral imperative

The dogs are so full, they no longer eat the dead bodies in the streets.

This is a saying in Haiti that describes the reality of what life is like there. While the conditions in Haiti are catastrophic, it can be hard to fully understand what that means. After all, catastrophic doesn’t depict how more than 2,500 men, women and children were killed in the first three months of 2024. It doesn’t do justice to the stories of women and children who are raped and many times killed after, or how children are forced into gang activity. Amid gang and gender violence, there is also a collapsing health system, with 18 closed hospitals and health clinics in the last two months, a dysfunctional government, record levels of hunger and more.

Almost every Haitian has stories of family members, friends and neighbors who were kidnapped, beaten, raped or murdered. It does not matter whether we are on the island or a part of the diaspora — no one can escape the anxiety and fear. The bloodshed in Haiti does not distinguish between young and old, God-fearing or atheist, healthy or sick. The carnage on the island has internally displaced over 360,000 individuals who are trying to escape life-threatening situations.

The worsening conditions in Haiti are not new information to the Biden administration, considering the U.S. Department of State’s extensive involvement in Haiti’s politics and governance. One could argue that in addition to the current situation of Haiti, the political history it shares with the United States, and the fact that the arms that are causing so many deaths in Haiti come directly from Florida, would make any immigration decision related to Haiti a no-brainer.

President Joe Biden has redesignated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti in the past, and while we appreciate these protections, we cannot ignore that over 24,000 men, women and children have been deported back to horrendous conditions since the beginning of his presidency. We cannot ignore that this administration authorized last week the deportation of 52 individuals back to a country that is wracked by everything inhumane. While the United Nations has urged countries to stop deporting Haitians back to life-threatening conditions for more than three years, the United States has made the unjust decision to deport Haitian men, women and children.

The Biden administration’s policy towards Haiti is both cruel and contradictory. How can the granting of TPS on the grounds that deportations to a collapsing state are inhumane be reconciled on authorizing those same deportation flights? How can continued deportations be rationalized when Haiti is seeing out-of-control violence, acute hunger, disrupted medical services, a no-go zone for commercial U.S. flights, and a completely collapsed government? How can deportation flights be tolerated as the same foreign powers that have destructively meddled in Haitian affairs, including the U.S., meet in a Jamaican hotel to continue dictating the future of Haiti?

It’s particularly disappointing to see this from the Biden administration. Not only because of the president’s campaign promise to Haitians but also as Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to fearmonger and threaten further anti-immigrant legislation due to a nonexistent wave of Haitian migrants that the U.S. Coast Guard itself admits has not materialized. Haitians have suffered enough and need to be treated with consideration and dignity by the Biden administration for once. The president and his administration have ways to show decency toward Haitians, all easily doable with the stroke of a pen. They can extend and redesignate TPS for Haitians, halt deportation and maritime forced returns to Haiti, and urge the United Nations to grant refugee status to Haitians.

Biden’s recent visit to Florida, the state with the largest Haitian diaspora in the U.S., shows that every vote counts and that he is again asking us to put our trust in him. Do we again trust him to protect Haitians while he sends deportation flights instead of humanitarian aid to Haiti? Do we again trust him to protect Haitians while allowing us to be threatened and used to propagate an anti-immigrant narrative in the state? It is time for the Biden administration and its leader to remember the suffering of Haitians — the hunger, violence and pain that people are living in daily — and finally, remember that their lives also matter. Halting deportations and redesignating TPS for Haiti are justified; the rationale for a humane response to Haitians and Haiti is there. Now is not the time to use human beings as props in the political arena.

Haitians have suffered enough and need to be treated with consideration and dignity by the Biden administration for once.

By Tessa Petit