Immigrant groups blast the resumption of deportation flights to Haiti

Haitian advocacy groups denounced the Biden administration on Friday, a day after the government deported dozens of Haitian nationals, despite the surge in gang violence that has erupted in the Caribbean nation over the past several months.

“Yesterday ICE ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) conducted a repatriation flight of around 50 Haitian nationals to Haiti,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the Phoenix in an emailed statement on Friday afternoon. “Individuals are removed only if they were found to not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.”

The flight is being severely criticized by Haitian advocacy and immigrant rights groups.

“This deportation shows how disrespectful the Administration is towards Haitian migrants,” said Nattacha Wyllie, founder and executive director of the Haitian American Art Network, in a written statement. “They removed U.S. citizens out of Haiti because of the deadly crisis, yet the Biden administration decided to start deporting Haitians back. This is not about following the ‘rules,’ especially since the U.N. has recommended not deporting Haitians for over a year. The Biden administration is showing that they do NOT care about the lives of Haitian immigrants.”

“This deportation flight is another example of the hypocritical position of the Biden administration towards Haiti — granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) on the basis that deporting people to a country gripped by violence and unrest is inhumane — to only authorize deportations at the most violent time in the history of Haiti,” added Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, also in a written statement.

The Haitian deportation flight came a week after South Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and two other members of Congress held a telephone conference call asking the federal government to provide more protections for Haitians in the U.S. who have fled the country amid the violence.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security added that the government “will continue to enforce U.S. laws and policy throughout the Florida Straits and the Caribbean region, as well as at the southwest border. U.S. policy is to return noncitizens who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States.”