Haiti learns hard way not to trust Biden

With a friend like Joe Biden, who needs natural disasters?

On Aug. 14, a 7.2 earthquake hit the island nation of Haiti. At least 2,189 people were killed and 12,000 injured. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed. It was followed by a tropical storm, and preceded by the assassination of its prime minister. A month later, the need for clean water, food and shelter continues.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration deported 86 Haitian nationals from the U.S. back to their native country, despite the multiple disasters that await.

Say it ain’t so, Joe. Wasn’t Donald Trump supposed to be the heartless one?

Human rights advocates are outraged, The Hill reported.

“That ICE would continue to carry out the mass deportations of our Haitian neighbors — with Haiti in the midst of its worst political, public health and economic crises yet — is cruel and callous,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).

When the earthquake hit, Biden made a statement: the U.S. had Haiti’s back.

“The United States remains a close and enduring friend to the people of Haiti, and we will be there in the aftermath of this tragedy,” he said in part.

And by “there” he meant “over here,” sending any of you who make it “here” back over “there.”

Biden has Haiti’s back the same way he had Afghanistan’s.

“Just one month after this devastating earthquake and storm that resulted in the deaths of over 2,200 Haitians, injured 12,000 people, damaged or destroyed 120,000 homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, the administration sent a plane full of families to Haiti under Title 42, including children under the age of 3, without offering them legal protection and the opportunity to file for asylum,” said Guerline Jozef, cofounder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

Migrants expelled under Title 42 are repatriated to their home countries without the possibility of requesting asylum under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Defenders of Haitian migrants are particularly enraged about the Biden administration’s decision to repatriate Haitians, as the Department of Homeland Security recently designated Haiti for Temporary Protected Status, a program that suspends deportations to countries that have been hit by natural or manmade disasters.

A devastating 7.2 earthquake would certainly qualify. Lack of clean water, shelter, food would also tick the boxes.

“The news of renewed Haitian deportation flights is the type of morally indefensible news we would have expected from the Trump administration, not the Biden administration. Given the instability and suffering on the ground in Haiti, the last thing we should be doing is deporting Haitians. These deportation flights should stop, full stop,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice.

For a man who cleared his schedule to slam Trump as often as he could, that comparison must sting.

After an earthquake nearly leveled Haiti in 2010, Barack Obama’s administration halted deportations to Haiti for more than a year.

It was the decent thing to do. It was the right thing to do.

“The Biden administration has a moral obligation to lead with compassion and support those fleeing from the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Haiti,” Pressley said.

It’s stunning that the president needs to be reminded what this country stands for.