The Biden administration reportedly sent over 70 Haitians back to their homeland on Thursday amid the nation’s ongoing struggle with gang violence. The move was met with condemnation from human rights organizations, like the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), which condemned the move as “intentional violence.”
The HBA and nearly 500 other human rights organizations previously sent a letter to the Biden administration on March 26 requesting an extension on the moratorium preventing Haitians from being deported from the US. The letter also called for the Biden administration to redesignate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS is a protective status for migrants from countries beset with armed conflict or impacted by natural disasters. It allows people to live and work in the US legally and without fear of deportation. The letter reminded the administration of its “promise to build a fairer and more inclusive immigration and asylum system.”
On March 29, the Biden administration then engaged in discussions with leaders of US-based Black civil rights groups to address the situation in Haiti and existing US initiatives aimed at assisting the Haitian population. Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said at the time:
The Administration’s commitment to ensuring a better future for Haiti and outlined the steps taken by the United States to work with Haitian stakeholders and international partners to address instability in Haiti, including by supporting the UN-authorized Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission to Haiti and lifting up Haitian-led solutions to the political impasse.
Following the Biden administration’s announcement on Thursday, however, the HBA condemned the action. The HBA said that these deportations will affect the most vulnerable to undeniable danger.
One of the reasons many Haitians migrate to the US is because Haiti ranks as the least affluent nation in Latin America and the Caribbean, facing many challenges such as political instability, major natural disasters and poverty. This is according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which is a specialized agency of the UN. The US currently has a level-four travel advisory in place for those traveling to Haiti. The US has advised people not to travel to Haiti “due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure.”
The UN has focused its attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which has persisted for years but reached its peak with the murder of their President Jovenel Moïse in 2021. Although it’s challenging to estimate an accurate number of people that leave Haiti, the Coast Guard has intercepted at least 224 individuals at sea in 2020 and 605 in 2021, as established by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the UN. It’s also emphasized that some of them opt for the risky route of crossing the sea.
The US also previously deported Cubans and Haitians—among others—from the US back in 2023. At the time, the Homeland Security Task Force—Southeast (HSTF-SE) indicated 11,955 migrants of different nationalities were interdicted, the majority of which were from Cuba and Haiti. The HSTF-SE is a US agency that aims to stop and prevent irregular unlawful maritime migration to the US.
