US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday deported at least 72 people to Haiti, including a two-month-old baby and 21 other children, in an apparent flagrant breach of orders by US President Joe Biden’s administration only to remove suspected terrorists and potentially dangerous convicted felons.
The children were deported to Haiti 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.
ICE is facing a rising chorus of denunciation as a “rogue agency” for its apparent refusal to abide by the new guidelines laid down by Biden and US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Photo: Reuters
The Biden administration ordered a 100-day moratorium on all deportations, which was temporarily blocked by a judge in Texas. However, the judge’s restraining order left in place the new guidelines stipulating that only the most serious immigration cases should be subject to deportation.
The administration appeared to gain the upper hand in its attempt to rein in ICE on Friday. when deportation flights to Haiti were suspended. However, on Monday, the immigration agency reasserted itself again with the renewed flights to Port-au-Prince, children and infants on board.
Human rights campaigners are dismayed by the deportations, which bear a close resemblance to the hardline course set by former US president 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, executive director of the immigration support group the Haitian Bridge Alliance.
“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,” she said.
Immigration advisers are especially concerned about the safety of the Haitian children deported, as they are being returned to a country that is embroiled in rapidly mounting political turmoil.
Haitian President Jovenel Moise 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 Sunday.
Moise 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 Port-au-Prince.
The Biden administration has stoked further controversy by backing Moise 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,” she said.
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