Immediate help for Haitians urged by lawmakers

By Mitch Perry

(Source: Florida Phoenix):

With violence by organized criminal groups continuing to escalate the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, South Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick has joined two other members of Congress and representatives of several Haitian-led organizations to urge more federal action to address the situation.

The groups are united in calling on the Biden administration to execute several specific actions to protect Haitians who have fled the violence-torn country and are currently in the U.S. or trying to get here.

Those actions include extending and redesignating Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Haiti. TPS is a program that allows migrants from designated countries with unsafe conditions to legally reside in the U.S for a temporary amount of time. The Department of Homeland Security announced last December that TPS would be extended for Haitians through Aug. 3, 2024.

The groups also want to stop all plans to detain Haitians interdicted at sea at Guantanamo Bay or offshore detention centers, and to see the CHNV Humanitarian Parole Program expedited. That’s the initiative rolled out by the Biden administration’s parole program last year that allows up to 30,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have a sponsor in the U.S. and who pass a background check to enter the country for a period of up to two years to live and work here.

Among the top concerns for Haitian American Cherfilus-McCormick is the trafficking of firearms from the U.S. that gets guns in the hands of organized gang members in Haiti. A United Nations report released last year said that “the principal source of firearms and munitions is in the U.S. and particular Florida.”

That led her and other congressional Democrats last month to file the Caribbean Arms Trafficking Causes Harm Act, or CATCH, which aims to curb illicit arms trafficking from the U.S. to the Caribbean.

“We have to do everything we can as Americans in the U.S. to not continue to support the gangs by giving them the ammunition that they need to terrorize the Haitian people,” Cherfilus-McCormick said last week.

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ayanna Presley is a co-chair of the Haiti Caucus in Congress along with Missouri Democratic U.S. Rep. Cori Bush and Cherfilus-McCormick. She said that now more than ever, this is the time for federal action to “stabilize Haiti and save lives.”

“That means immediately halting all deportations,” said Presley. “Anything less is a death sentence. We have to halt all deportations to the island. We have to redesignate TPS for Haiti … it means cracking down on arms trafficking to Haiti, which has fueled the unspeakable violence that we’re witnessing today.”

Meanwhile, NBC News reported several weeks ago that “two U.S. officials” said the Biden administration will not change the policy of returning Haitians interdicted at sea because they don’t want to trigger mass migration. The officials also said that the current crisis has not yet spurred the U.S. to consider granting TPS to an additional group of undocumented Haitians.

“Haiti is facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises right now,” said Bush. “The collapse of the government, the violence and impunity of armed gangs, the widespread hunger and disease. The targeting of civilians. The hundreds of thousands displaced. It is appalling and unconscionable. The world must rally on behalf of the Haitian people.”