BY RAFAEL BERNAL for The Hill/ The original text appears here
A broad coalition of organizations on Monday called on the Biden administration to expand relief for Haitian migrants, including halting all deportations to the country.
In a letter to President Biden and his top foreign policy and immigration officials, 344 groups said they are “alarmed” that deportation flights to Haiti have proceeded, even after the political and natural crises that have hit the Caribbean nation.
Haiti was hit by an earthquake on Aug. 14 that destroyed around 120,000 homes, killed 2,200 people and injured another 12,000.
Haiti, which has long been the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was still reeling from the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7 when the earthquake hit.
Still, deportation flights to the country have continued, according to the letter’s signatories, with at least 130 people deported to the country since Moïse’s assassination, including some infants.
“Since February 1, 2021, the Administration sent at least 37 deportation flights to Haiti, even as your officials acknowledged internally that those being deported ‘may face harm’ on return and the COVID-19 pandemic raged,” wrote the groups.Continue reading