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Children and infants fleeing the violence and instability of Haiti are being expelled from the United States, forced to return to a place where a safe and healthy future may not be possible.

According to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), between September 19 and December 31, 2021, more than 12,000 Haitian asylum seekers were turned away from the United States, one of them a 9-day old child. The baby spent six days in Arizona and Texas detention facilities after she was born in Mexico, only to be expelled from the U.S. just three days before Christmas.

Many of these flights have left from Laredo, TX, where expellees are reportedly given no credible fear interviews by ICE agents, are being detained in poor conditions, and are prevented from calling their families, the ACLU reports.

A 9-day-old infant was among those expelled back to Haiti from Laredo, TX.
A 9-day-old infant was among those expelled back to Haiti from Laredo, TX.

Adults are shackled and packed tightly on board planes with children and infants, never being told where they are going, CBS reports. IOM gives them about $100 at the Port-au-Prince airport, before they are released in the late afternoon.

According to the Guardian, these families and individuals are turned out onto the streets in the darkness, where even the law is displaced by gang violence. At least 165 gangs operate in Haiti, many with tacit political backing and support.

After several natural disasters, Haiti is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis.
After several natural disasters, Haiti is in the grips of a humanitarian crisis.

According to Daniel Foote, the former US special envoy for Haiti, Haitians are being deported from the U.S. “every day, like clockwork. And most of the deportees, when asked what they’re going to do, they say, ‘We’re going to try to go back.’ So, they’re put in a place where Americans have been told to leave and not to visit, our Embassy is locked down and our personnel are unable to leave our compounds without massive security. And we’re deporting desperate people with no resources back into these circumstances.

By current counts, about 30,000 Haitians have been abandoned like this, simply for seeking a better future.

Much of Haiti is in ruins after a devastating earthquake.
Much of Haiti is in ruins after a devastating earthquake.

The U.S. has long supported aid programs to Haiti, but also bears no small responsibility for the current state of the country, now the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Hurricanes and drought have made life very difficult for Haitians, but far more have been impacted by the deference of democracy when leaders, hand-picked by a foreign country, turn out to be unjust and self-serving. American involvement in Haitian politics has more than once led to a violent coup and instability within the island country.

At the source of the current wave of expulsions is a law put in place by the Trump Administration in March 20, 2020, to protect the United States from a public health crisis. Public health code Title 42, has led to over 1.2 million expulsions since the pandemic began, and the Biden administration has continued to insist that Title 42 is necessary for public health purposes.

People waiting outside the crowded airport in Port au Prince.
People waiting outside the crowded airport in Port au Prince.

Public health experts outside the CDC contend there is no need to turn away refugees and expel them to their home countries or Mexico, especially considering the widespread availability of rapid tests and vaccination for COVID-19.

We must do more for the people of Haiti seeking safety and freedom in the U.S. Click below and ask the Biden Administration to end its use of Title 42, which expels Haitian migrants without due process; and to provide funding for Haitian resettlement in the U.S.

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