Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns joined 73 other organizations in asking the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to suspend deportation flights to Haiti. The U.S. Embassy ordered American diplomats to leave Haiti and issued a "Do Not Travel" Advisory for Haiti back in July. Still, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues to fly immigrants back to the dangerous country. Read the letter on HRW.org.
September 26, 2023
The Honorable Alejandro N. Mayorkas
Secretary
US Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C., 20528
Dear Secretary Mayorkas,
Since November 2022, when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on all governments to “suspend the forced return of Haitians to their country,” the U.S. government has sent nine deportation flights to Haiti. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to schedule deportation flights to Haiti despite the serious risks to life, liberty, and physical and mental integrity of the people being deported.
As you know, the United States already bars the deportation of Haitians to Haiti who qualify for temporary protected status (TPS) because “Haiti is experiencing extraordinary and temporary conditions resulting from grave insecurity and gang crime, as well as socio-economic and humanitarian conditions, including those resulting from environmental disasters aggravating food insecurity.” As you are also aware, the US embassy on August 30 called on all Americans to leave Haiti “as soon as possible” because of the worsening security situation.
The following day, August 31, a charter flight landed in Port-au-Prince, reportedly carrying more than 50 persons deported from the United States, despite the known danger and overwhelming evidence of escalating violence and insecurity there.
Given this evidence, and UNHCR’s warning in its non-return advisory for Haiti that “the forced removal of people to a place where they may face risk of persecution, torture or other serious or irreparable harm would amount to ‘refoulement,’ which is explicitly prohibited under international refugee and human rights law,” these forced returns appear to conflict with the United States’ legal obligations.
The undersigned organizations call on you to suspend the scheduled September deportation flight to Haiti and all future U.S. deportation flights to Haiti until the United States, in consultation with UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, is assured that generalized conditions of violence and insecurity in Haiti no longer represent a credible risk of serious harm to anyone forcibly returned to that country. We further call on you to investigate possible harms that people deported from the United States to Haiti since November 2022 may have experienced since their deportation, and to rectify, to the extent possible, those harms, including by facilitating humanitarian parole applications for those having experienced harm.
- African Advocacy Network
- African Coalition
- African Communities Together (ACT)
- Al Otro Lado
- Aldea - The People's Justice Center
- Alianza Americas
- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
- Americans for Immigrant Justice
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC
- Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP)
- Attorney & Counselor at Law
- Black Alliance for Just Immigration
- Bridges Faith Initiative
- Capital Area Immigrants' Rights (CAIR) Coalition
- Carolina Migrant Network
- Center for Democracy in the Americas
- Chispa LCV
- Church World Service
- Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP)
- DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving
- Families For Freedom
- Family Action Network Movement
- Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC)
- Fondasyon Mapou
- Freedom for Immigrants (FFI)
- Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Haitian Bridge Alliance
- Haitian Neighborhood Center,Sant La Inc.
- Human Rights First
- Human Rights Watch
- IFSI-USA
- Immigrant Action Alliance
- Immigrant Justice Network
- Immigrant Legal Resource Center
- Immigration Equality
- Immigration Hub
- Innovation Law Lab
- Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
- Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America (IFCLA)
- International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)
- JPIC Committee of RJM USA-Haiti Province
- Justice Action Center
- La Resistencia
- Las Semillas INC
- Latin America Working Group
- LatinoJustice PRLDEF
- League of Conservation Voters
- Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention
- LOUISIANA ORGANIZATION FOR REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS
- Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area (LSSNCA)
- Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
- Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition
- Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
- NAKASEC
- National Immigrant Justice Center
- National Immigration Law Center
- National Immigration Project (NIPNLG)
- National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
- NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
- New York Immigration Coalition
- Pax Christi New Jersey
- Quixote Center
- Refugees International
- Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
- Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
- The Advocates for Human Rights
- TPS-DED AAC
- UndocuBlack Network
- Union for Reform Judaism
- Washington Office on Latin America
- Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
- Witness At The Border
- Women's Refugee Commission
- Youthaiti
Still of video of ICE deportation flights to Haiti on May 31, 2023 by Corey Bullard courtesy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement