SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Healthcare workers watch as Haitians who were deported from the United States step off a plane at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince on May 26, 2020. (Photo: Pierre Michel Jean / AFP via Getty Images)
'Disregard for Human Life Could Not Be More Blatant': Despite Covid-19 Risks, Trump Increases Deportations to Haiti
"I believe that they are trying to deport as many people as possible prior to the elections," said one advocate for Haitian refugees.
Oct 29, 2020
Refugees' rights organizations on Thursday said the Trump administration has been ramping up deportations of Haitians and asylum-seekers from several African countries in the weeks before Election Day, sending hundreds of people back to countries where they may face gang and political violence and potentially spreading the novel coronavirus in places that lack infrastructure to cope with outbreaks.
Calling the deportation flights "death flights" in the midst of the United States' worsening coronavirus pandemic, the immigrant rights group Witness at the Border told The Guardian that 12 flights to Haiti have been recorded in October so far, up from one or two flights every four weeks in previous months.
The administration has arranged the deportations under Title 42 of the 1944 Public Health Services Law. The White House has used the law, which allows the government to take emergency action to prevent the "introduction of communicable diseases," to deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year, according to The Guardian.
The CDC has said there is no reason to use the law to protect the health of Americans or asylum-seekers, but the outlet reported that Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's close adviser on immigration policy, "insisted on it."
Under U.S. public health guidelines, detained asylum seekers and immigrants must be held in a way that allows for social distancing and must be tested prior to boarding a deportation flight, but Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), told The Guardian that safety protocols have been all but abandoned.
"Once they arrive back in Haiti, they are just left to fend for themselves," Jozef told the outlet, adding that a majority of Haitians who have been deported recently are families with young children and babies. "I believe that they are trying to deport as many people as possible prior to the elections."
In April, the Trump administration was accused of "actively and knowingly spreading the coronavirus to Central America through deportation" as officials resumed flights to countries including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, even as the U.S. became the epicenter of the global pandemic. The Guatemalan government said at the time that at least three nationals deported from the U.S. tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival.
The collapse of Haiti's economy since the 2010 earthquake there has led to crumbling infrastructure, the weakening of democracy, and a rise in gang violence.
HBA reported that the current "chaos and disorder" in Haiti has created conditions that make it nearly impossible to reintegrate deported nationals into society.
In addition to Haitians, asylum-seekers from Cameroon, Congo, and several other African countries have been deported in recent weeks.
"The disregard for human life could not be more blatant," tweeted immigrant rights organizer Ellie Hutchinson Cervantes.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Refugees' rights organizations on Thursday said the Trump administration has been ramping up deportations of Haitians and asylum-seekers from several African countries in the weeks before Election Day, sending hundreds of people back to countries where they may face gang and political violence and potentially spreading the novel coronavirus in places that lack infrastructure to cope with outbreaks.
Calling the deportation flights "death flights" in the midst of the United States' worsening coronavirus pandemic, the immigrant rights group Witness at the Border told The Guardian that 12 flights to Haiti have been recorded in October so far, up from one or two flights every four weeks in previous months.
The administration has arranged the deportations under Title 42 of the 1944 Public Health Services Law. The White House has used the law, which allows the government to take emergency action to prevent the "introduction of communicable diseases," to deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year, according to The Guardian.
The CDC has said there is no reason to use the law to protect the health of Americans or asylum-seekers, but the outlet reported that Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's close adviser on immigration policy, "insisted on it."
Under U.S. public health guidelines, detained asylum seekers and immigrants must be held in a way that allows for social distancing and must be tested prior to boarding a deportation flight, but Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), told The Guardian that safety protocols have been all but abandoned.
"Once they arrive back in Haiti, they are just left to fend for themselves," Jozef told the outlet, adding that a majority of Haitians who have been deported recently are families with young children and babies. "I believe that they are trying to deport as many people as possible prior to the elections."
In April, the Trump administration was accused of "actively and knowingly spreading the coronavirus to Central America through deportation" as officials resumed flights to countries including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, even as the U.S. became the epicenter of the global pandemic. The Guatemalan government said at the time that at least three nationals deported from the U.S. tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival.
The collapse of Haiti's economy since the 2010 earthquake there has led to crumbling infrastructure, the weakening of democracy, and a rise in gang violence.
HBA reported that the current "chaos and disorder" in Haiti has created conditions that make it nearly impossible to reintegrate deported nationals into society.
In addition to Haitians, asylum-seekers from Cameroon, Congo, and several other African countries have been deported in recent weeks.
"The disregard for human life could not be more blatant," tweeted immigrant rights organizer Ellie Hutchinson Cervantes.
Refugees' rights organizations on Thursday said the Trump administration has been ramping up deportations of Haitians and asylum-seekers from several African countries in the weeks before Election Day, sending hundreds of people back to countries where they may face gang and political violence and potentially spreading the novel coronavirus in places that lack infrastructure to cope with outbreaks.
Calling the deportation flights "death flights" in the midst of the United States' worsening coronavirus pandemic, the immigrant rights group Witness at the Border told The Guardian that 12 flights to Haiti have been recorded in October so far, up from one or two flights every four weeks in previous months.
The administration has arranged the deportations under Title 42 of the 1944 Public Health Services Law. The White House has used the law, which allows the government to take emergency action to prevent the "introduction of communicable diseases," to deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year, according to The Guardian.
The CDC has said there is no reason to use the law to protect the health of Americans or asylum-seekers, but the outlet reported that Stephen Miller, President Donald Trump's close adviser on immigration policy, "insisted on it."
Under U.S. public health guidelines, detained asylum seekers and immigrants must be held in a way that allows for social distancing and must be tested prior to boarding a deportation flight, but Guerline Jozef, president of the Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), told The Guardian that safety protocols have been all but abandoned.
"Once they arrive back in Haiti, they are just left to fend for themselves," Jozef told the outlet, adding that a majority of Haitians who have been deported recently are families with young children and babies. "I believe that they are trying to deport as many people as possible prior to the elections."
In April, the Trump administration was accused of "actively and knowingly spreading the coronavirus to Central America through deportation" as officials resumed flights to countries including Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, even as the U.S. became the epicenter of the global pandemic. The Guatemalan government said at the time that at least three nationals deported from the U.S. tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival.
The collapse of Haiti's economy since the 2010 earthquake there has led to crumbling infrastructure, the weakening of democracy, and a rise in gang violence.
HBA reported that the current "chaos and disorder" in Haiti has created conditions that make it nearly impossible to reintegrate deported nationals into society.
In addition to Haitians, asylum-seekers from Cameroon, Congo, and several other African countries have been deported in recent weeks.
"The disregard for human life could not be more blatant," tweeted immigrant rights organizer Ellie Hutchinson Cervantes.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.