US are sending Haitians back home
NPR, Sunday, September 19, 2021
DEL RIO, Texas — The U.S. flew Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland Sunday and tried blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signaled the beginning of what could be one of America's swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.
More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without an opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the Coast Guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, said Yael Schacher, senior U.S. advocate at Refugees International whose doctoral studies focused on the history of U.S. asylum law.
Biden administration to ramp up deportation flights to Haiti, aiming to deter mass migration into Texas
Nick Miroff8:27 a.m. EDT
Homeland Security officials are planning as many as eight flights per day to Haiti, three officials said, while cautioning that plans remained in flux. The administration was preparing to announce the flights Saturday, said two of the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the plan.
Haitian authorities have agreed to accept at least three flights per day, but Biden officials want to maximize deportations to break the momentum of the massive influx into the Del Rio, Tex., camp, one official said.
Thousands of Haitian migrants wait under bridge in South Texas after mass border crossing
Another U.S. official involved in the planning insisted that the flights were not a targeted measure aimed at Haitians, but the application of U.S. immigration laws allowing the government to swiftly return border-crossers who arrive illegally.
“This isn’t about any one country or country of origin,” the official said. “This is about enforcing border restrictions on those who continue to enter the country illegally and put their lives and the lives of the federal workforce at risk.”
The Biden administration continues to use a pandemic enforcement measure known as Title 42 to rapidly “expel” border crossers to Mexico or their home countries. Officials said some of the flights to Haiti would probably be expulsion flights relying on the public health authority of the Title 42 provision.
A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from using Title 42 to expel migrant families but stayed the order for 14 days. The Biden administration appealed the ruling Friday.
The administration’s preparations to ramp up deportation flights to Haiti was first reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press.
By announcing its intent to deport the Haitians before launching the flights, Biden officials also appeared to be hoping some in the camp would abandon their attempt to enter the United States and return to Mexico. Migrants arriving to the camp have been given numbered tickets by the Border Patrol as they await a turn to be formally taken into U.S. custody, the first step in starting the process of requesting U.S. asylum or some other form of protection from deportation.
Some Haitians seeking to avoid deportation could abandon the Del Rio camp and attempt to remain in the United States illegally, or return to Mexico, two U.S. officials acknowledged.
Many of the migrants crowded under the highway bridge are part of a larger wave of Haitian migrants that arrived in Brazil, Chile and other South American nations following their country’s devastating earthquake in 2010.
A lament for Haiti: ‘It is as if we are cursed’
Immigrant advocates have been calling on Biden to suspend all deportation flights to Haiti following the assassination of the country’s president in July and a 7.2 quake last month that killed at least 2,000. The Biden administration has extended a form of provisional residency known as temporary protected status to eligible Haitians who arrived in the United States before May, and it had curbed deportation flights at the behest of immigrant advocacy organizations.
The new deportation flight plan is likely to outrage those groups, but it points to the Biden administration’s hardening view of immigration enforcement after months of surging migration levels.
Last month, U.S. authorities took more than 208,000 into custody along the southern border, the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show, as illegal crossings reach their highest levels in more than two decades.
The Comprehensive Development Plan is an Innovative Proposal that Addresses the Structural Causes of Migration, With a Focus on Growth, Equality and Environmental Sustainability
ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, presented the fourth draft of this initiative today in Guatemala, at a ceremony led by that country’s President, Alejandro Giammattei.
15 JANUARY 2020|PRESS RELEASE
The Comprehensive Development Plan for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and south and southeast Mexico is an innovative proposal that seeks to create a space for sustainable development by stimulating economic growth, promoting universal access to social rights, fostering resilience to climate change, and guaranteeing rights throughout the entire migratory cycle, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), sustained today.
In a ceremony held in Guatemala, which was led by President Alejandro Giammattei, the senior United Nations official presented the fourth draft of the Plan. This initiative has been adhered to by the four countries, and it will be enriched further in a joint manner with a view to achieving a definitive design, which will be determined by the countries involved with support from ECLAC and the United Nations System.
The ceremony was attended by Foreign Ministers Pedro Brolo, of Guatemala; Alejandra Hill, of El Salvador; and Marcelo Ebrard, of Mexico. Honduras was represented by Ambassador Mario Alberto Fortín.
During her presentation, Alicia Bárcena recalled that the Comprehensive Development Plan seeks to change the migration narrative, placing the dignity of migrants and human rights at the center with a human security approach and adopting a focus on the full migratory cycle: origin, transit, destination and return.
She added that the proposal explores regional synergies and integration-based approaches, it surveys and expands what States already do well with their resources, and it strengthens public capacities.
ECLAC’s Executive Secretary emphasized that the initiative contemplates 22 thematic programs and 108 projects, ready to be implemented, which entail an investment of $25 billion dollars over 5 years.
The proposal is organized around four thematic pillars: economic development, social well-being, environmental sustainability, and comprehensive management of the migratory cycle.
ECLAC’s most senior representative recalled that El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and the 9 states in south-southeast Mexico make up a market of 60 million people, with access to both oceans and a privileged geographical situation, great natural biodiversity and cultural diversity, with a vocation for integration, a young population, and production capacities waiting to be developed.
Finally, she reiterated her invitation for officials to participate in a donors’ conference for the Comprehensive Development Plan, which will take place during the first week of March in Mexico City.
The Comprehensive Development Plan stems from the mandate that ECLAC was given on December 1, 2018 by the Presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, to draft a plan with the aim of formulating a diagnosis and presenting recommendations to advance toward a new development pattern and give rise to a new vision regarding the complexity of migratory processes.
This strategic document is the result of collaboration between 16 United Nations agencies, funds and programs that operate in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In its assessment, the Plan indicates that the structural motives and causes of migration that these countries currently endure are: insufficient economic growth with poverty and inequality, where the 10% with the greatest income obtains as much as 70 times more than the poorest 10%; high demographic growth in cities and great lags in rural areas; natural phenomena such as drought and flooding; violence and insecurity in places of origin; and the great salary gap that exists with the United States, which is the country that has become the destination for the majority of migrants.
Some of the 30 specific recommendations contained in the Comprehensive Development Plan include progressive taxation, to prioritize public investment and eliminate tax privileges, as well as the strengthening of tax administration; raising total investment to a target of 25% of GDP; leveraging remittances so they can act as drivers of productive inclusion and local development; and greater integration and trade facilitation, with an emphasis on energy, logistics, infrastructure and regional digitalization.
How Hope, Fear and Misinformation Led Thousands of Haitians to the U.S. Border
Some left to find work. Others to escape violence or racial discrimination in other countries. But many believe ‘there is nothing to go back to.’
Sept. 17, 2021
Migrants walked across the Rio Grande carrying food and other supplies to a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas.Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
DEL RIO, Texas — They have arrived this week by the thousands, Haitians who had heard of an easy way into the United States. In what appeared to be an endless procession across the shallow waters of the Rio Grande, they carried mattresses, fruit, diapers and blankets, provisions to tide them over while they awaited their turn to plead for entry into America.
For so many, it had been a journey years in the making.
“A friend of mine told me to cross here. I heard it was easier,” said Mackenson, a 25-year-old Haitian who spoke on the condition that his last name not be published. He and his pregnant wife had traveled from Tapachula, Mexico, near the country’s border with Guatemala, where they had been living after earlier stops over the last three years in Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Panama. “It took us two months to get here on foot and by bus.”
This week, the couple joined an estimated 14,000 other migrants who have converged upon the border community of Del Rio, a surge that has overwhelmed local officials and the authorities and comes amid a staggering spike in border crossings this year. On Friday morning, as the summer sun beat down, the couple found a moment of solace in the shade of the Del Rio International Bridge, which had quickly become a very crowded staging area, with migrants jostling for a patch of dirt to sit and rest.
By Friday evening, federal authorities had closed the entrance to the bridge and were routing traffic 57 miles away to Eagle Pass, Texas, saying it was necessary to “respond to urgent safety and security needs presented” by the influx and would “protect national interests.”
Officials estimated that more than 14,000 migrants have converged on Del Rio, Texas — a figure that’s nearly half the population of the small border city.Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
The rise in Haitian migration began in the months after President Biden took office and quickly began reversing former President Donald J. Trump’s strictest immigration policies, which was interpreted by many as a sign that the United States would be more welcoming to migrants. In May, the administration extended temporary protected status for the 150,000 Haitians already living in the country. But tens of thousands have attempted to cross into the United States since then despite not qualifying for the program.
“False information, misinformation and misunderstanding might have created a false sense of hope,” said Guerline M. Jozef, the executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an organization that works with migrants.
Mr. Biden’s term has coincided with a sharp deterioration in the political and economic stability of Haiti, leaving parts of its capital under the control of gangs and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes. The assassination of Haiti’s president and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake this summer have only added to the pressures causing people to leave the country. Shortly after the assassination, hundreds of Haitians flocked to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, many carrying packed suitcases and small children, after false rumors spread on social media that the Biden administration was handing out humanitarian visas to Haitians in need.
Most of the Haitians in Mexico — a country that has intercepted nearly 4,000 this year — were not coming directly from Haiti, but from South America, where, like Mackenson, they had already been living and working, according to a top official in the Mexican foreign ministry. The number of Haitians heading northward across the border that separates Colombia and Panama — often by traversing the treacherous jungle known as the Darién Gap — has also surged in recent years, increasing from just 420 in 2018 to more than 42,300 through August of this year, according to the Panamanian government.
“We are dealing with this really new type of migration which are these Haitians coming from mainly Brazil and Chile,” said Roberto Velasco, the chief officer for North America at Mexico’s foreign ministry. “They are mainly looking for jobs, they come from third countries so repatriation is difficult.”
Following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, tens of thousands of Haitians headed southward to Chile and Brazil in search of jobs in two of South America’s richest countries. To get there, many undertook an arduous overland journey across the continent through the Amazon and the Andes.
Migrants gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge on Thursday evening. Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
Many were offered humanitarian visas in both nations, which needed low-wage workers, but that welcoming stance withered as economic instability in the region rose in tandem with a growing backlash toward immigrants.
Haitian mass migration to Brazil, South America’s largest nation, began increasing in 2011, reaching a peak of nearly 17,000 in 2018.
But as the pandemic has battered the Brazilian and other South American economies, work opportunities have proved increasingly scarce: Only a net of about 500 Haitians gained formal jobs in Brazil in the first five months of this year, compared with around 2,000 in the same period in 2019, according to Brazil’s latest migration statistics.
In Chile, the exodus of Haitians has also been driven by the government’s increasingly restrictive immigration policy. President Sebastián Piñera has tightened border controls and visa rules and increased deportations of undocumented migrants after being overwhelmed by the influx of Venezuelans and Haitians fleeing economic collapse and violence in their countries.
Many Haitians have also suffered from discrimination in Chile, a nation that a decade ago had no significant Black population. “Anti-Black racism is one of the main driving forces of people leaving Chile in search of protection,” Ms. Jozef said.
The number of visas issued to Haitians in Chile collapsed to just 3,000 so far this year from the peak of 126,000 in 2018, according to the country’s migration statistics. In fact, more Haitians have left than arrived in Chile this year, dramatically reversing a prepandemic trend.
“The movement of Haitians from Chile and other South American countries shows that migration is not just a simple journey of you move once and then you’re done,” said Cris Ramón, an immigration consultant based in Washington, D.C. “People are making a far more complex journey to the United States, it isn’t just that there’s an earthquake in Haiti so people are going to migrate.”
Until recently, Haitians were gathering by the thousands in Reynosa and Matamoros, the Mexican cities on the other side of McAllen and Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley, after hearing that families with children were not being turned back by the Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande. Some were allowed into the country; others were returned to Mexico, only exacerbating the confusion.
“The movement is often based on rumors,” said Ms. Jozef. “Last week, if you’d asked me, I’d say they were in Reynosa and Matamoros. This week it’s Del Rio. These people are extremely desperate. And they know that there is nothing to go back to in Haiti.”
Crowds in Del Rio, Texas, have created a new humanitarian challenge.Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times
Though Haitians still represent a small percentage of border crossers — about 4 percent of the migrants encountered by border agents in August — their numbers have ballooned in recent months. Nearly 28,000 Haitians have been intercepted by the Border Patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, compared with 4,395 in 2020 and 2,046 in 2019.
The United States is home to about one million Haitians, with the largest numbers concentrated in Miami, Boston and New York. But Haitian communities have blossomed in Maryland, Ohio, North Carolina and California.
This week, the United States resumed deportation flights to Haiti under Title 42, an emergency public health order that has empowered the government to seal the border and turn away migrants during the pandemic. Immigration and Customs Enforcement repatriated about 90 Haitians, including families, on Wednesday.
The move drew sharp rebuke from immigrant advocates and lawmakers who said the administration should be offering Haitians legal protection and the opportunity to apply for asylum rather than repatriating them to their troubled home country just a month after the earthquake.
“It is cruel and wrong to return anyone to Haiti now,” said Steve Forester, immigration policy coordinator at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
But returning Haitians to their home country is “essential to prevent these kinds of situations from developing,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors curbing immigration. “If any Haitian who makes it to the U.S. border is home free, then more people are going to do it. If you lived in Brazil or Chile for years, one of your kids was born here, you are ineligible for asylum. You were firmly resettled in another country.”
On Friday, at the spillway north of the Del Rio International Bridge, a two-lane thoroughfare that connects the small bicultural city with Mexico, the migrants in the growing crowd became restless as they waited to be processed by border agents. They walked about the camp, which was filling up with hundreds of new arrivals on Friday, and crossed the Rio Grande into Ciudad Acuña, where they bought as much hot food and cold drinks as they could carry.
Near the bridge, enterprising migrants set up shop, shouting out their wares and prices. It felt like an open-air market, and by midafternoon, the piles of trash were strewn about the dirt ground. As the sun intensified, so did the dust, which left a thin layer on clothes, cellphones and bodies.
The mood, while mostly serious, was also at times jovial. As border agents looked on, migrants chatted with each other, joked and took occasional refreshing swims in the calm waters of the river.
Not too far from the camp, Ang Ladeson Francillon, 29, washed his clothes outside a shelter, where he had been taken after being processed by border agents. He had left Haiti only a month ago with his wife and little girl, setting out on an odyssey that took them across several countries, through jungles, across deep rivers and on long, exhausting treks by foot.
He reached Del Rio four days earlier, and was surprised to find thousands of other Haitians.
For the first time in a long time, at the shelter with so many others who dreamed the same dreams, Mr. Francillon felt optimistic about his family’s future. He was expecting to get on a California-bound plane, possibly as early as this weekend, where he would meet up with a sister.
“We hope to find a new start there,” he said. “We all want the same thing, a better life.”
James Dobbins and Edgar Sandoval reported from Del Rio, Natalie Kitroeffand Anatoly Kurmanaev from Mexico City and Miriam Jordan from Los Angeles. Oscar Lopez contributed research.
