On Monday, December 20, the Biden administration sent three removal flights back to Haiti, with over 340 people on them including 32 children. As we move into Christmas week the administration plans to send planes every day back to Haiti, except for Christmas eve. Since taking office, the Biden administration has removed over 14,000 people to Haiti; at least 11,100 since mid-September.
How can the Biden administration justify bringing together people to discuss the multifaceted problems in Haiti, acknowledging in the process the deteriorating security situation, and still deport thousands of Haitians back to Haiti - many of whom were never even given a chance to apply for asylum under the Biden administration’s ongoing enforcement of Title 42. The Miami Herald’s editorial board lifted up this contradiction (in an otherwise problematic call for UN intervention):
“When the Haitian gang, named 400 Mawozo, kidnapped 17 Christian missionaries in October, the United States warned Americans on the island to get out— now. All the while, the Biden administration was sending planeloads of Haitian migrants in the United States back to their violent homeland. The message? Haiti’s too dangerous for Americans, but it’s good enough for Haitians.”
Since Biden took office we have demanded that deportations be halted. We’ve been joined in doing so by hundreds of human rights and immigrant organizations, members of Congress, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the editorial boards of the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Miami Herald, the Boston Globe and others. Members of Biden’s State Department team have quit over this policy. And yet Biden persists under the delusion that somehow if the United States keeps being cruel to Haitians and others this will deter people from trying to come to the United States.
While it seems that just about everything has been tried already, we can’t stop demanding. If you would like to join in these efforts, and you can send a message to your member of Congress, encouraging them to speak out. And join in this petition to end Title 42 and the Biden administration’s renewal of the Migrant Protection Protocols. Share with friends.