Thread: U.S. to Step Up Deportations of Haitians Amid Surge at Border

U.S. to Step Up Deportations of Haitians Amid Surge at Border

By KIRK SEMPLE SEPT. 22, 2016



Migrants, including Haitians, waited in May to enter the United States at the San Ysidro crossing that links Tijuana, Mexico, with San Diego. CreditGuillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MEXICO CITY — The Obama administration, responding to an extraordinary wave of Haitian migrants seeking to enter the United States, said on Thursday that it would fully resume deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants.

After an earthquake devastated parts of Haiti in 2010, the United States suspended deportations, saying that sending Haitians back to the country at a time of great instability would put their lives at risk. About a year later, officials partly resumed deportations, focusing on people convicted of serious crimes or those considered a threat to national security.

But since last spring, thousands of Haitian migrants who had moved to Brazil in search of work have been streaming north, mostly by land, winding up at American border crossings that lead to Southern California.

Few have arrived with American visas, but nearly all have been allowed to enter the United States because immigration officials were prohibited, under the modified deportation policy, from using the so-called fast-track removal process often employed at the border for new, undocumented arrivals.

Instead, the migrants were placed in a slower deportation process and released, with an appointment to appear in immigration court at a later date, officials said. Since early summer, most have been given permission to remain in the country for as long as three years under a humanitarian parole provision, immigrant advocates said.

With the full resumption of deportations, which took effect on Thursday morning, Haitians who arrive at the border without visas will be put into expedited removal proceedings.

Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement that conditions in Haiti had “improved sufficiently to permit the U.S. government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis.”

While Mr. Johnson’s statement did not mention the recent influx of Haitians along the southwestern border, Homeland Security officials, during a conference call with reporters, cited the migrant wave as the other key factor in the administration’s decision.

Since last October, officials said, more than 5,000 Haitians without visas have shown up at the San Ysidro crossing that links Tijuana, Mexico, with San Diego. By comparison, 339 Haitians without visas arrived at the San Ysidro crossing in the 2015 fiscal year.

An additional 4,000 to 6,000 Haitians were thought to be still making their way from Brazil, immigrant advocates in San Diego and Tijuana said, based on estimates from shelters along the Brazil-to-Mexico migration route.

The message to those Haitians from the Obama administration, however, seems clear: Turn around or go elsewhere.

An uptick in deportations might not occur immediately.

Removals require the cooperation of and paperwork from the receiving country, and Homeland Security officials said they were still in negotiations with the Haitian government about the policy shift.

In the meantime, officials said, nearly all Haitians stopped at the border and scheduled for accelerated deportations would be put into detention centers.

Officials clarified, however, that asylum law would continue to apply to newly arriving Haitians. A migrant who feared returning to Haiti because of the threat of persecution or torture would be interviewed to determine whether that fear was credible. If an immigration officer determined it was, the immigrant could apply for asylum.

Haitian immigrants covered by temporary protected status would be unaffected by the change in policy.

Over the summer, the unusual surge in Haitian migrants was accompanied by an equally unusual surge in migrants from more than two dozen other countries, nearly all traveling along the same arduous routes from South America, across as many as 10 borders.

The migratory wave has overwhelmed shelters along the way, particularly in Tijuana, where the four main shelters have been at or over capacity for much of the past four months, while also struggling with language and cultural barriers.

Some migrants, because they were unable to find accommodations or wanted to avoid shelter living, have chosen to sleep on the streets.

Haitians started migrating to Brazil in large numbers after the earthquake. Haiti was reeling, but Brazil was ascendant, and it had a need for cheap labor, especially with the World Cup and the Olympics approaching. Haitians, with few prospects at home, were happy to oblige.

Thousands of them made their way to Brazil, often through Ecuador, a bordering country with a lax immigration policy.

In Brazil, many were granted humanitarian visas that allowed them to work.

But amid Brazil’s economic and political convulsions over the last two years, many Haitians lost their jobs or sank deeper into poverty.

The migration north began in earnest during the spring, with a large influx in Tijuana in late May, and the surge has continued.

The Haitian migrant population has mainly consisted of men, though many women have made the trek, too, as have children and even newborns. They have mainly taken an elaborate series of bus rides, though migrants also had to travel at times by foot, truck and boat, and have hired smugglers to help sneak them across certain borders or avoid law enforcement officials.

They have told of highway robberies, frightening encounters with armed gangs and beatings. Some migrants have died during the trip, many being swept away while trying to ford swift-moving rivers.

The shift in American policy caught advocates in San Diego and Tijuana by surprise.

“It was a complete and utter shock,” said Ginger Jacobs, an immigration lawyer and the chairwoman of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium. “We are pretty baffled by what appears to be a complete 180 in terms of policy.”

She added, “We object to a policy change that doesn’t appear to reflect any actual change in reality.”

Margarita Andonaegui, the coordinator of a main migrant shelter in Tijuana, said that on Wednesday afternoon she had received what sounded like heartening news: The American authorities were going to increase their processing capacity for the Haitians, to 150 per day from 50.

But in light of the new deportation policy, that piece of information took on another meaning.

“They’re going to receive them to deport them,” Ms. Andonaegui said. “That’s bad news.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/wo...uake.html?_r=0

U.S. to boost Haitian deportations, but Haiti may not take them


By Julia Edwards
September 22, 2016
42 Comments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, responding to a surge in Haitian immigrants, will end special protections for them dating back to a 2010 earthquake that devastated that nation, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday.

In a move that could send many back to an impoverished and violent country, the United States would now take steps to deport newly arrived Haitian migrants who do not have a case for seeking asylum, according to Department of Homeland Security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

More than 5,000 Haitian immigrants have entered the United States without visas this fiscal year through Oct. 1, said Department of Homeland Security officials, up from 339 in fiscal year 2015.

Deportations could be difficult if Haiti remains reluctant to issue documents needed to take back its residents.

"Haiti has not always issued travel documents as quickly as we would like," one official said. "Having said that, we are hopeful that they will live up to their international obligations and issue travel documents for people that have received the full measure of due process."

U.S. immigration authorities along the Mexico-California border have struggled to find enough resources to interview and temporarily detain Haitian migrants, most of whom are traveling from Brazil.

Many Haitians who found work in Brazil through a visa program offered after the earthquake are starting to leave because of Brazil's economic downturn and the shrinking work opportunities caused by the end of the summer Olympics.

Haitians who have been in the United States since January 12, 2011 and have Temporary Protected Status granted to earthquake victims will not be subject to deportation, Johnson said in a statement.

"The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State are working with the Government of Haiti and other key partners to resume removals in as humane and minimally disruptive a manner as possible," Johnson said.

Haitians who arrive on Thursday or later will be subject to "expedited removal" in which they are detained and ordered deported if they do not have a credible claim to asylum, Department of Homeland Security officials said.

Under previous protections, only Haitians who have been convicted of a serious crime or pose a national security threat have been ordered deported.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-boost-h...120114233.html

Official Says 40,000 Haitians May Be Going to US

It would seem the first point of landing for migrants; e.g Brazil or Greece should turn them around rather then take them in & allow passage. Our gov't should be insisting on South American countries and mexico/central american countries to NOT allow passage. EU is little different as it seems they are forced to take in or its just an excuse to fill EU with muslims - but when is enough enough?

Same here in the USA. We have a mealy mouth president; we do not get respect from other countries.

Uncertainty for Haitians in Tijuana

Sandra Dibble Contact Reporter


Hundreds of Haitians in Tijuana preparing to present themselves to U.S. officials at the San Ysidro Port of Entry face an unpleasant surprise: the probability of detention — and eventual deportation to their impoverished country — undera new policy announced this week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A day after the changes went into effect, the Haitian men gathered in small groups on Friday morning outside the Padre Chava soup kitchen said they had heard nothing, and asked anxiously for details.

“I don’t believe it,” Miterson Derisseau, a 25-year-old tile-setter from Port-au-Prince said in French.

“Did Obama’s party decide this? He has a generous heart, he cannot deport us to our country, ” added Derisseau, who hopes to join his sister in Boston.

Announced Thursday by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the new policy entails the resumption of regular, non-criminal deportations to Haiti, more than six years after these were suspended on the heels of the country’s 2010 earthquake.

“The situation in Haiti has improved sufficiently to permit the U.S. government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis,” Johnson said in a statement.

Haitians without visas now face the same treatment as most foreigners who show up at the border without permission to enter the United States: detention and deportation, unless they express fear of persecution upon being sent back.

The changes have come on the heels of an unprecedented and unexpected flow of Haitians to the San Diego border, more than 4,346 in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, according to updated U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures released Friday — out of a total of 4,844 nationwide.

Last year’s total for San Diego was 315, while the national total was 795.

In congressional testimony on Thursday in Washington, D.C., the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sarah Saldaña, called it “an emergency situation,” and said she had learned of “40,000 Haitians who are en route to the United States.”

Most of the Haitians in Tijuana have come by land from Brazil, where they moved after the 2010 earthquake to find work, but found survival increasingly difficult as the South American country has suffered a severe economic downturn.
The Haitians usually obtain safe passage through Mexico with a document called “oficio de salida” that allows them in the country for a limited time period, usually about 30 days, enough time to make it to the U.S. border.

Until Thursday, when the new U.S. policy went into effect, most Haitians presenting themselves at the San Diego border were allowed into country under humanitarian parole, and generally released with notices to appear before an immigration court at a later date.

But as of Thursday, the reception changed: Undocumented Haitians seeking entry now are subject to a fast-track process called Expedited Removal that entails detention.

It is unclear how soon the newly announced routine, non-criminal deportations to Haiti would take place, said Faye Hipsman, an analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute.

“The big factor is cooperation with Haiti,” Hipsman said. “My understanding is that this was a unilateral decision made by DHS,” she said, adding that the Haitian government has yet to publicly respond.

Until now, many Haitians have been traveling to established Haitian communities in New York City and Miami, where activists have been closely following news of the Haitians in Tijuana. Marleine Bastien, executive director of FAMN Haitian Women of Miami, was part of a group that traveled to the San Diego-Tijuana border recently to understand the situation.

“We’re talking about people who have been on a three and four month journey, who have been subjected to the worst kind of abuse, physical, sexual abuse,” said Bastien, who has been collaborating with members of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium.

With the changes in policy, “first of all they need to apprised of their rights,” Bastien said. “They have the basic rights of due process.”

A Mexican immigration official estimated earlier this week that 800 to 1,110 Haitians are currently in Baja California preparing to cross to the United States. But with the prospect of deportation, some may choose not to show up at the border on their appointed day, migrant advocates said.

With the new policy, “I would guess most Haitians would not wish to be detained,” and could end up stranded at the border, said Steve Forester, immigration policy coordinator at the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. The country “is in no condition, post earthquake and given extremely difficult economic and other conditions there to be receiving an influx of people,” he said.

“I think they’re probably not going to stay in Mexico,” said Maureen Meyer, senior associate for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America. “What they may end up doing is what Central Americans do, try to avoid detection and get into the United States regardless.”

Tijuana government officials have worked to distance themselves from the situation, saying that while the situation is cause for concern, the Haitian migrant issue is a federal matter, not a municipal one. Requests for interviews went unanswered this week.

As they have attempted to serve the rising numbers of Haitian migrants, Tijuana’s four main shelters have found themselves overwhelmed. Of 2,823 people receiving shelter at Padre Chava since May 27, a total of 1,831 have been Haitians, according to the center’s figures.

Near the U.S. border, at the Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava, a shelter and soup kitchen, the news of the new policy had yet to fully hit on Friday morning. And the few who had an inkling of the changes remained undeterred, said Margarita Andonaegui, the shelter’s administrator.

“Up to now, everyone has decided to go ahead,” and keep their appointments with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. “Only one person asked me, ‘What do you recommend?’”

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...923-story.html