Migration

The United Nations emphasizes that Haiti is in a dire situation and now is not the time to deport Haitians. The majority of deportations take place from the Dominican Republic with neither due process nor advance notice to the Haitian authorities responsible for receiving them. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports 154,333 Haitians were expelled by the Dominican Republic last year - about 87% of all deportations to Haiti in 2022.  It is true that insecurity in Haiti affect the Dominican Republic as well - but conducting mass deportations only makes a bad situation worse - politically, economically, and for human rights. The full article by Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald follows. 

While the United States scrambles to resettle Afghan refugees, Haitian asylum seekers are being deported en masse.  Many have experienced or witnessed human rights abuses but are being returned without a proper hearing.  The UN Refugee Agency has expressed concern that these returns may violate international law. Human Rights Watch and many other advocacy organisations, domestic and internatrional, have denounced these returns from an administration that campaigned on making the asylum process humane and transparent.  The Diaspora and its partners are mobilzing to demand due process and dignity.  More information follows in the article by Washington Post journalists Tim Craig, Sean Sullivan, and Silvia Foster-Frau below.  

The cessation of Temporary Protected Status, which in reality often lasts many years, would result in the deportation of 200,000 Haitians, Nicaraguans, El Salvador, and Sudanese who together have more than 200,000 children born in the United States.  Deportations would separate families and create unneccesary suffering.  It would also have negative economic consequences for companies like Butterball Tukey who depend upon an immigrant workforce.  This is hard, dirty, and difficult work that would be hard to fill otherwise.   Policies can be be sound from both a humanitarian and economic perspective  at the same time - deporting hard-working people and separating them from their families when their labor is very much needed would be neither.  

Haitians are, without a doubt, hard workers.   Most just want  opportunities, security, and for their familiies to have good lives.  Opportunity can be hard to come by in Haiti although some have found it in Tijuana.  In fact, the Mayor of Tijuana has praised Haitians for their work ethic and ability to integrate.  Given a chance, Haitians will prove themselves - whether in Miami, Montreal, or Tijuana.  The full article by Associated Press writer Julie Watson follows.  

As the United States has stepped back from humanitarian leadership, Canada and Mexico have stepped up.  Rather than deporting Haitains who had become stranded in Mexico trying to reach the United States, the Mexican government has offered them one year renewable visas allowing them to work.  This has benefitted the Haitian migrants and it has also benefitted Mexico, which now has a new and manageable pool of very hard workers. It is a good example of solidartiy in a world that is sorely in need of more of it.  The full article by AP journalist Elliot Spagat follows. 

Up to 7,000 Haitian migrants may try to cross the Southern California border in the months ahead. The majority of these migrants were given humanitarian visas to live and work in Brazil following the earthquake.  While there were many opportunities to work in the lead-up to the Olympics, the Brazilian economy has taken a beating as of late.  As work became harder to find, Haitian migrants increasingly sought opportunities elsewhere - and often travelling dangerous routes to do so.