US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) deported at least 72 people to Haiti on Monday, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children, as the Biden administration made clear it would press on with expulsions of newly-arrived migrants, pending a review of immigration policy.
The children were deported to Haiti on Monday on two flights chartered by Ice from Laredo, Texas, to the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince. The removals sent vulnerable infants back to Haiti as it is being roiled by major political unrest.
The expulsions were carried out under a 77-year-old public health statute, called Title 42, first invoked by the Trump administration after the start of the coronavirus outbreak. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that policy would continue for new arrivals at the border, until there had been a review and facilities for housing migrants had been restored.
“The return of a family is a solemn and heartbreaking event. That is especially true when the country of destination suffers instability, violence, lack of economic opportunity or other challenges,” the spokesperson said.
“As this administration has stated from the very outset, our capacity at the border will not transform overnight, due in large part to the damage done over the last four years to our asylum system and infrastructure. As we review and reform current immigration policies, we will continue prioritizing the health and safety of everyone we encounter during the Covid-19 pandemic. We are committed to restoring our asylum system and building an improved system.”
The Biden administration issued a 100-day moratorium on deportations on taking office, with exceptions for suspected terrorists, dangerous criminals and arrivals at the border after 1 November last year. The moratorium alone would not have stopped Monday’s Title 42 expulsions, officials said.
The moratorium itself was blocked by a Trump-appointed Texas judge on 26 January, though the judge did not strike down new guidelines, calling on Ice to focus its resources on deporting only potentially dangerous migrants. The agency however appeared to ignore those guidelines last week, attempting to deport a planeload of African migrants last week, leading to accusations it was a rogue agency. The flight was stopped at the last minute on the grounds that some of the deportees could be witnesses in an investigation into abuse by Ice agents.
Following intense lobbying from community groups and congressional staffers, who pointed to the political instability and lawlessness in Haiti, repatriation flights to Haiti were paused on Friday, but they resumed on Monday.
Human rights activists are dismayed by the deportations, which bear a close resemblance to the hardline course set by Donald Trump. “It is unconscionable for us as a country to continue with the same draconian, cruel policies that were pursued by the Trump administration,” said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the immigration support group the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
She added: “I don’t know what’s going on between Ice and the Biden administration, but we know what needs to be done: the deportations must stop.”
Immigration advisers are especially concerned about the safety of the Haitian children deported on Monday, given that they are being returned to a country that is embroiled in rapidly mounting political turmoil. The Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, is refusing to heed opposition calls for him to step down in a dispute over the end of his term – his detractors say he should have left office on 7 February.
Moïse has been ruling by decree for more than a year and has recently cracked down on public protests. On Sunday, the day that opponents urged him to stand down, he announced the arrests of 23 people including a supreme court justice and a senior police inspector whom he claimed were plotting a coup against him.
Two Haitian journalists were reportedly shot with live ammunition fired by the armed forces on Monday in volatile scenes in the Champ de Mars in downtown Port-au-Prince.
The Biden administration has stoked further controversy by backing Moïse in the dispute. The US government has announced it takes the view that the Haitian president has another year to run before he must leave office.
Jozef said it was not safe to return children to this environment. “I fear for the kids being sent into the middle of this uprising. It’s as if there is a house burning, and instead of taking people out for their own safety the United States is sending defenseless babies into the burning house.”
Trump continued to follow an aggressive approach to Haitian deportations right up to the final hours of his presidency. The day before he left the White House, a final deportation flight was sent to Haiti carrying a man who was not a Haitian citizen and had never been to that country.