Help Thousands Fleeing Haiti Find Stability
4,319 signatures toward our 30,000 Goal
Sponsor: The Hunger Site
Haitians escaping violence and instability are being expelled from the U.S. every day. Help them find a brighter future!
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.
Since February 1, 2021, approximately 20,000 Haitian asylum seekers have been 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 Christmas1.
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 families2.
Adults are shackled and packed tightly on board planes with children and infants, never being told where they are going. They are given about $100 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) when they are released at the Port-au-Prince airport in the late afternoon3.
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 support4.
Daniel Foote, former US special envoy for Haiti, said Haitians are being deported from the U.S. "every day, like clockwork...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 circumstances5."
About 30,000 Haitians have been abandoned like this, simply for seeking a better future.
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 without due process since the pandemic began, and the Biden administration has continued to insist that Title 42 is necessary for public health purposes7.
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-198.
We must do more for the people of Haiti seeking safety and freedom in the U.S. Sign the petition 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.
- International Organization for Migration(19 December 2021), "Returns of Migrants and Reception Assistance in Haiti."
- American Civil Liberties Union (23 September 2021)"[Why We're Joining the Call to Shut Down ICE Detention Centers](https://www.aclu.org/news/i, mmigrants-rights/why-were-joining-the-call-to-shut-down-ice-detention-centers/ )."
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News (27 September 2021), "U.S. expels nearly 4,000 Haitians in 9 days as part of deportation blitz."
- Joe Parkin Daniels, The Guardian (13 October 2021), "'Who wouldn't want out?' migrants deported to Haiti face challenge of survival."
- Joyce Hackel, The World (5 January 2022), "'Haitians deserve a chance to determine their own future,' former US envoy says."
- American Immigration Council (15 October 2021), "A Guide to Title 42 Expulsions at the Border."
- Monette Zard, Michele Heisler, Paul Spiegel, Ron Waldman, The Hill (16 October 2021), "The CDC's Title 42 order fuels racism and undermines public health."
The Petition:
To the President of the United States, Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Director of the CDC,
The regular expulsion of Haitian asylum seekers without due process under the guise of Public health code Title 42 has become a humanitarian disaster, one which I am asking you to remedy today.
After natural disasters destroyed their infrastructure and gang violence took over where the law could no longer be upheld, tens of thousands of Haitians have fled the country looking for a safer, brighter future.
Because of Title 42, these people are being sent back to a nightmare. Haitians of all ages — even newborn babies — are held for days at an ICE detention center in Laredo, TX, until they can be shackled and packed tightly onto aircraft and abandoned at the Port au Prince airport.
At night, their fate on the streets of Port au Prince is grim. At least 165 gangs operate in Haiti, many with tacit political backing and support.
Title 42 should not be used to deny asylum for Haitians who desperately need assistance. Considering the widespread availability of rapid tests and vaccination for COVID-19, it should not block anyone from seeking safety in the United States.
I hereby ask that you end the use of Title 42 and provide funding for Haitian resettlement in the United States.
Sincerely,
