While the U.S. government transitions between administrations, the Department of Homeland Security continues to deport people of Haitian heritage. Steve Forester of IJDH said, “It’s completely outrageous given the devastation Hurricane Matthew caused and the inability of Haiti to receive deportees…The only thing that has changed in Haiti is that the vast devastation affecting two million people in Haiti is no longer in the headlines; that’s the only thing that has changed since they suspended deportations.”
Steve Forester is an activist in Miami. Activists in San Diego also condemn the deportations. Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Network Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).
Esperance said, “These are not criminal deportees but people who went to Brazil and transited through Mexico to San Diego, California.”
Below is a portion of the Miami Herald article. Click HERE for the full article.
U.S. government quietly resumes deportations to Haiti
by Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald
November 8th, 2016
…
Haitian activists in Florida and California, who had been pressing the Obama administration into Tuesday’s U.S. presidential elections to reverse the Sept. 22 deportation policy for Haitians and to allow newly arriving undocumented Haitians the opportunity to work in the United States without the fear of deportation, were for the most part taken by surprise.
Several activists received an email from a San Diego activist over the weekend saying that “DHS has resumed deportations to Haiti,” and there could be two flights a week.
“It’s completely outrageous given the devastation Hurricane Matthew caused and the inability of Haiti to receive deportees,” said Steven Forester, a longtime activist in South Florida’s Haitian community. “The only thing that has changed in Haiti is that the vast devastation affecting two million people in Haiti is no longer in the headlines; that’s the only thing that has changed since they suspended deportations.”
Attorney Randy McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services, said he and other activists believed that they had assurances from Homeland Security officials that they would not resume deportations without notice.
“No matter which way they do it, it’s wrong and goes against every humanitarian impulse that we as Americans share,” he said. “ It’s very shameful that they would would wait only a month after one of the most devastating natural disasters in the Caribbean since the earthquake and to do it secretly without asking for any feedback from Haitian advocates. It is outrageous.”
Click HERE for the full article.