Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined Haitian Bridge Alliance and 480+ Immigration, Human Rights, Faith-Based, and Civil Rights Organizations in Sending a Letter to President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Mayorkas Urging the Extension and Redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and a Moratorium on Deportations. Read this letter as a PDF.
March 26, 2024
Dear President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Mayorkas:
Haitian Bridge Alliance and the undersigned 481 immigration, human rights, faith-based, and civil rights organizations write to request an extension and redesignation of the Republic of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and a moratorium on deportations to the Republic of Haiti. Today, in the absence of a functioning state, armed groups terrorize the population with systematic rape, indiscriminate kidnapping, and mass killing, all with impunity. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged last month, in January 2024 alone, “more than 1,100 people were killed, injured, or kidnapped in the country. Gangs now control 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Armed groups use sexual assault and rape to terrorize the population. The violence has also had the effect of blocking trade routes and aid routes, and shuttered schools. Criminal groups have cut off access to food, to clean water, to health care, to electricity. Half the country is eating just one meal a day. Three million children need immediate humanitarian aid. And the conflict is spreading north to Haiti’s breadbasket, threatening the food supply for the entire country.”
Scores of people have been killed and more than 15,000 have been forced to flee their homes since coordinated gang attacks began on February 29. An estimated 362,000 Haitians are currently internally displaced throughout the country. Gangs infiltrated and attacked Haiti’s major airports and seaports, which has prevented de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning to the country from a trip to Kenya and ultimately led to his commitment to resign once a council is appointed for a transition of power. On March 3, gangs organized prison breaks in Haiti’s two main prisons, freeing an estimated 4,500 prisoners. Gangs torched or looted police stations around the country and killed several police officers, rendering Haitian police too powerless or too scared to control the outpour of prisoners. Witnesses say the streets of Port-au-Prince reek with the stench of the dead, as corpses pile up too quickly to bury.
Haiti is still designated as a level 4, do not travel, by the State Department. On March 10, U.S. Marines flew helicopters into Port-au-Prince in the middle of the night to airlift non-essential embassy personnel and bolster embassy security. If the United States cannot keep its personnel safe in Haiti, then the Haitian government is unlikely to keep Haitian nationals safe.
Haiti’s spiraling political and security crisis was foreseeable and the outproduct of over 220 years of foreign intervention. Since Haiti abolished slavery and declared independence in 1804, colonial powers, including the United States, have tried to control and exploit the country through military force, neo-liberal economic policies, and political interference. As suggested by former Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance E. Tendayi Achiume, migration and forced displacement must be analyzed with the added context of a lack of global reparatory justice for slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonial imperialism, as well as ongoing violations against the right to self-determination for majority Black countries such as Haiti. Moving forward, the United States must address the root causes of Haiti’s security and humanitarian crisis. The U.S. government should not only let Haitians come together to make their way out of the current crisis but also provide ways for Haitian refugees forced to flee to safely seek protection.
In response to Haiti’s extreme insecurity, we ask the Biden administration to urgently consider the
following actions:
Extend and redesignate Haiti for TPS
The existing TPS designation for Haiti is set to expire on August 4, 2024. All the conditions leading to the Biden administration’s original TPS redesignations on December 5, 2022, and August 3, 2021, in addition to the deteriorating crisis described herein, exhibit temporary and extraordinary conditions that make a safe return to Haiti impossible. The undersigned organizations request that the Biden administration consider redesignating Haiti for TPS as soon as possible.
Redesignation will allow protection against removal and eligibility for work authorization to all eligible Haitians in the United States. The current TPS recipients from Haiti in the United States, many of whom have been here for decades and have children who are U.S. citizens, have also become essential to our economy and our morale as a country.
Moreover, TPS promotes recovery, development, and regional stability by preserving and increasing the flow of remittances to Haiti and directly into the pockets of people who can use the money for food, healthcare, housing, education, and other basic needs that will help decrease the flow of migration. Remittances capture over 60 percent of foreign inflows, make up a substantial share of Haiti’s GDP, and serve as a lifeline for most Haitians.
Indefinitely halt deportations and Maritime Forced Returns to Haiti, release detained Haitians and support administrative closure of removal cases
Although the Haitian government has been unable to receive and reintegrate its citizens safely, the U.S. Coast Guard has interdicted and summarily returned 131 Haitians since October 2023, including 65 individuals on March 12. In addition, monthly deportation flights continue. There have been 253 deportation and expulsion flights to Haiti since September 19, 2021. Most of these estimated 26,000 individuals removed to Haiti were blocked from seeking asylum and other protection by Title 42 policies. These removals severely undermine the administration's promise to build a fairer and more inclusive immigration and asylum system for all and contribute to the destabilization of Haiti. We ask the Biden administration to halt all removal flights and maritime removals to the already-overburdened country.
Furthermore, consistent with Sec. 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act and the accompanying regulations at 8 CFR Sec. 241, Haitians with final removal orders should be released from immigration detention if they pose no threat to public safety because there is no significant likelihood of their removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. All pending cases should be evaluated, where Haiti is the country of removal, for prosecutorial discretion. Attorney General Garland restored the authority of immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals to administratively close deportation proceedings nationwide. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorneys should be instructed to join motions to administratively close the cases of Haitians in removal proceedings because they cannot be safely removed under current conditions.
Expand and Expedite Parole to Haitians
We request that the administration remove the arbitrary monthly cap on CHNV parole recipients. Given this national emergency in Haiti, allowing American sponsors who are currently waiting to sponsor individuals from Haiti is a far safer option than forcing Haitians to flee through irregular migration channels. In addition to expanding parole availability, we request expedited processing for the Haitian Family Reunification Program. Expanding these existing legal pathways will reduce the likelihood that Haitians will be exploited by smuggling networks.
In conclusion, we thank you for your attention to this urgent and critical matter. As we say in Haitian Kreyol, Anpil men, chay pa lou! (Many hands make the load light). We look forward to collaborating with you on this issue over the coming weeks and months.
Sincerely,
See the full list of signatories here.
Photo of 84 Haitian immigrant intercepted by the US Coast Guard, 2018.