IMMIGRATION CRISIS AS THE U.S. AMBASSADOR RESIGNS IN PROTEST

Avellon Williams

PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD – Mr. Daniel Foote, the United States Ambassador to Haiti has resigned.

Mr. Foote’s resignation comes in the wake of the Biden administration’s decision to embark on large-scale deportations in response to a surge of Haitian migrants.

The decision to deport Haitian migrants comes after a sharp increase of persons from that strife-torn, poverty-stricken nation seeking asylum in the United States.  

About 15,000 Haitian migrants are now camped at the border town of Del Rio Texas.

The department of Homeland Security has stated that since last Sunday, the United States has carried out 12 deportation flights to Haiti, expelling more than 1,400 migrants.

The DHS has said that it intends to continue these expulsions regularly, with as many as seven deportation flights taking place daily.

In his letter of resignation, Mr. Foote described Haiti as a collapsed state, which is in no position to absorb the hundreds of deportees.

He also stated that this deportation policy could backfire, resulting in more people fleeing Haiti and seeking asylum in the United States.

Foote also chided the Biden Administration for its failure to heed advice that he had given, concerning the migration of refugees to the United States.

He described the decision to engage in a mass deportation of Haitians as both inhumane and counterproductive.  

“Not so!” the U. S. State Department responded.  A spokesman for the Department stated that Foote had failed to raise concerns about migration during his tenure, which began in July this year.

The spokesman stated that foot had ample opportunity to raise his concerns before the recent crisis at the border in Del Rio, but failed to do so.

Ned Price, further chided Foote’s decision to resign, stating that, “instead of participating in a solution-oriented policy process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned and mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation.”

The decision to deport the Haitians has not found favour with the Democrats leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer. He urged the Biden administration to hold its hand on this policy and adopt a more humane method of treating the migrants.

The United Nations, which rarely criticizes the United States policies, has stated through its top refugee Official, Filippo Grandi that, the United States may be in violation of international law regarding its treatment of refugees.

He urged the US to lift its Title 42 health-related restrictions, which have been in place since March 2020, so that refugee seekers could be properly screened instead of being deported en masse.  

Perhaps, in this reporter’s view, the State Department needs to contact the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to seek advice in dealing with a mass influx of migrants.  

Trinidad and Tobago’s handling of the Venezuelan migrant crisis in 2019, could provide a blueprint to more developed countries that are facing the same problem.