Haiti’s aftermath: Immigration and repatriation

It was exactly one month ago today that a devastating earthquake shook Haiti, leaving an estimated 217,000 people dead and over one million without homes. In the upcoming days we will examine the political, social, an economic effects from the deadly tremor.

In the days after the January 12th earthquake, several nations in the Americas and Europe made critical changes to their immigration policies. France, for instance, placed holds on deportations to Haiti while Canada considered “fast-tracking” illegal Haitian migrants.

After years of advocacy by immigrants’ rights groups and Haitian expats officials would subsequently grant temporary protected status (TPS) to Haitians. According to Homeland Security (DHS) over 12,000 applicants have signed up so far for the program that would allow undocumented Haitians to stay in the U.S. for eighteen months without fear of deportation or detention. Despite the benefits that TPS provides some critics have claimed that the program would lead to “amnesty” for undocumented Haitians while others worried that the $470 fees are too high.

“Attempting to leave Haiti now will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation,” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano last month after warning that Haitian migrants trying to enter the U.S. by sea would be sent back. This week that threat was carried out:

Nearly 80 Haitian migrants have been returned to their Caribbean homeland by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Their overloaded sail freighter was stopped about 13 miles west of Great Exhuma Island, Bahamas, last weekend. Officials in the island chain asked the U.S. for help returning the 64 men and 14 women to Haiti.

In the midst of Haiti’s humanitarian crisis the TPS decision is more than welcome. Too bad that such foresight does not extend into much-needed changes to U.S. immigration policy.

Image- CBC (“A woman stands in a makeshift tent camp for earthquake survivors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press).”
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Voice of America, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, Miami Herald, Christian Science Monitor,