(jamaicaobserver.com)
NEW YORK, USA — The Obama administration has quietly resumed the deportation of illegal Haitians since the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country was devastated by an earthquake on January 12 this year.
Haitian activists and lawyers say that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has, in recent weeks, begun rounding up Haitian immigrants, including some who had been released earlier this year.
Barbara Gonzalez, an ICE spokeswoman said, without elaborating, that the agency was deciding whom to deport in a manner “consistent with our domestic immigration enforcement priorities”.
The Obama administration has said it is focusing immigration enforcement efforts on catching and deporting immigrants who have been convicted of the most serious crimes or who pose a threat to national security.
Officials said that Haitians who have been granted a special immigration status, known as temporary protected status (TPS), will continue to be shielded from deportation.
TPS, which was granted for 18 months to Haitians, and is set to expire in mid-July. Haitians who have committed felonies or at least two misdemeanours were not eligible for the programme.
Immigration officials declined to disclose how many Haitians they plan to deport but confirmed that 351 Haitians are in detention.
“I don’t think Haiti can handle more challenges than what it has right now,” said Dr Mathieu Eugene, the first elected Haitian official in the New York City Council.
“The earthquake, the cholera, the election — everything’s upside down in Haiti,” he added.
US federal officials had suspended deportations to Haiti immediately after the massive earthquake.
TPS, which is sometimes granted to foreigners who are unable to return safely to their home countries because of armed conflict or natural disasters, was extended to Haitians in the United States, permitting them to remain temporarily and work.
US immigration officials said many Haitians, including some with criminal convictions, were also released from detention centres across the country.
Now, officials say they would deport only Haitians who had been convicted of crimes and had finished serving their sentences.
But Eugene said Haitians in New York are bracing for broader deportations, despite the US government’s seemingly limited plan.
“The people in the community are worried because they don’t know what the next target population is going to be,” he said.
Ricot Dupuy, the manager of Radio Soleil, a Creole-language radio station in Brooklyn, said he had been “flooded with calls” about the plans for deportations.
Officials said about 300,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless by the massive earthquake in January.
In addition, in recent months, Haiti has been afflicted by a cholera epidemic.
Yesterday, Haiti’s health ministry said that 2, 535 people have died since the outbreak begun in mid-October.
It said almost 57,000 of the 114,497 people infected have been treated in hospitals.
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