March 26, 2024

Contact: Paige Censale, pcensale@haitianbridge.org

San Diego, California—- Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) and over 400 immigration, human rights, faith-based, and civil rights organizations sent a letter to the Biden administration urging the extension and redesignation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and a moratorium on deportations. In addition, we request the immediate release of detained Haitians and administrative closure of removal cases, expedited processing for the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program and the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan (CHNV) parole program, and other pathways that will assist Haitians to safely and legally seek protection in the United States.

Scores of Haitians have been killed and more than 15,000 have been forced from their homes since coordinated gang attacks began on February 29. Armed gangs infiltrated and attacked Haiti’s major airports and seaports, which has prevented de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning to the country from a trip to Kenya and ultimately led to his commitment to resign. On March 3, gangs organized prison breaks in Haiti’s two main prisons, freeing an estimated 4,500 detainees. 

Gangs torched or looted police stations across the country and killed several police officers, rendering Haitian police too powerless or too scared to control the outpour of detainees. Witnesses say the streets of Port-au-Prince reek with the stench of the dead, as corpses (casualties of violence) pile up too quickly to bury. Haiti is still designated as a level 4, do not travel,  by the State Department.  On March 10, U.S. Marines flew helicopters into Port-au-Prince in the middle of the night on March 10, to airlift non-essential embassy personnel and to bolster embassy security. 

Guerline Jozef, the Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, released the following statement: 

“Haiti’s spiraling political and security crisis was foreseeable and the outproduct of over 220 years of foreign intervention. Since Haiti abolished slavery and declared independence in 1804, colonial powers, including the United States, have tried to control and exploit the country through military force, neo-liberal economic policies, and political interference. The United States, however, has a chance to right its wrongs. HBA stands ready and committed to working with the Biden administration to implement policies that are consistent with the rule of law and bring about economic prosperity to the island.”

The existing TPS designation for Haiti is set to expire on August 4, 2024. All the conditions leading to the Biden administration’s original TPS redesignations on December 5, 2022, and August 3, 2021, in addition to the deteriorating crisis, exhibit temporary and extraordinary conditions that make a safe return to Haiti impossible.