LA Times Editorial

The admin­is­tra­tion should make good on its promise to expe­dite the immi­gra­tion to the U.S. of about 55,000 Haitians who have been approved for visas.

In Jan­u­ary, Pres­i­dent Obama pledged not to for­sake or for­get Haiti dur­ing what promised to be a long and painful recov­ery from the worst earth­quake to hit the island nation in 200 years. To that end, the admin­is­tra­tion imme­di­ately sent mil­i­tary assis­tance and mil­lions of dol­lars in emer­gency aid. But it has yet to take another cru­cial step: expe­dit­ing the immi­gra­tion to the United States of the 55,000 Haitians who already have been approved for visas by the Depart­ment of Home­land Security.

These Haitians, spon­sored by rel­a­tives who are either legal res­i­dents or cit­i­zens, have met all require­ments; among other things, they have pro­vided the gov­ern­ment with legally bind­ing affi­davits from fam­ily mem­bers guar­an­tee­ing finan­cial sup­port so that they do not become a pub­lic bur­den. Due to a mon­u­men­tal back­log of visas avail­able for Haitians, how­ever, offi­cials say the process takes from four to 11 years. Given the dire cir­cum­stances in Haiti and the administration’s promise of staunch sup­port, it is both log­i­cal and humane to speed this process on their behalf. And there is prece­dent for doing so. In 2007, Pres­i­dent George W. Bush allowed Cubans whose fam­ily peti­tions had been approved to enter the coun­try ahead of sched­ule, and he did the same for refugees from Indochina and Kosovo. Haitians cer­tainly need visas just as badly, so why the dis­parate treatment?

Remov­ing tens of thou­sands of peo­ple from Haiti’s ruins and allow­ing them to live and work in the United States would auto­mat­i­cally turn them into providers and bene­fac­tors, speed­ing the island nation’s recov­ery. Even before the 7.0 earth­quake, remit­tances were cru­cial to its sur­vival, but now they are indis­pens­able. Mil­lions of Haitians liv­ing abroad, includ­ing about 800,000 in the U.S., sent home nearly $2 bil­lion last year, and World Bank econ­o­mists expect to see a 20% surge this year. And the bang for the buck is sig­nif­i­cant, with up to 10 peo­ple ben­e­fit­ing from the funds sent home by each emigrant.

Leg­is­la­tion to cre­ate a fam­ily reuni­fi­ca­tion pro­gram for Haitians, mod­eled on the Cuban pro­gram, is pend­ing in Con­gress. But it is unnec­es­sary. Obama only has to give the order and the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity will move Haitians to the front of the line. Time is of the essence; 1 mil­lion peo­ple remain dis­placed, and hur­ri­cane sea­son has begun.

The Obama admin­is­tra­tion has kept its word about send­ing money to Haiti, but the country’s recov­ery can­not progress with­out the assis­tance of its dias­pora. Obama should help Haitians to help themselves.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-haitians-20100721,0,3618364.story