Organizers and legislators believe the Biden administration is contradicting its commitments to human rights by deporting people to Haiti despite intense violence there.
“We’re sending people to their death who have no criminal background or history,” Tessa Petit, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told NOTUS. “[The administration is] not following their priorities and just continued deportations the minute they realized there was still an open airport in Haiti.”
Violence in Haiti has effectively triggered a security and humanitarian crisis, and gangs control about 80% of the nation’s capital, according to the State Department. The Biden administration has worked to get U.S. citizens off the island and is currently determining whether to extend temporary protected status, or TPS, for some Haitians already living in the U.S. so they can remain here.