Washington, DC – Advocates and observers are criticizing the Biden administration for sending deportation flights to Haiti the same week that the U.S. State Department called on U.S. citizens to leave Haiti immediately, due to deteriorating security and escalating dangers.
In the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles writes, “As more Haiti neighborhoods fall to gangs, U.S. sends deportation flight,” which includes a quote from Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance:
“This is a travesty for the United States to be sending any deportation flights to Haiti right now; it should be viewed as a human rights violation and a potential crime against humanity … We cannot be asking for the evacuation of people and deporting them at the same time … They are themselves sending people to what they believe is danger.”
In The Hill, Rafael Bernal writes, “ICE sends deportation flight to Haiti after warning US citizens to evacuate,” which also includes quotes from Jozef assessing the mixed record of the Biden administration in its treatment of Haitians. She said:
“We fought really hard to get TPS, we say thank you for that; really hard for the humanitarian parole, thank you for that. We worked really hard for them to push on family reunification. Not only do we support, we work with them, and we say thank you for that and we continue to do so. However, when what they are doing is wrong, we have to hold them accountable.”
