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(A more accurate title for this article would be "Obama to Step Up
Deportations of Haitians Amid Surge at Border" but that might undercut
the NYT's goal of seeing Hillary Clinton serving as Obama's 3rd term.)
U.S. to Step Up Deportations of Haitians Amid Surge at Border
By KIRK SEMPLE
MEXICO CITY — The Obama administration, responding to an extraordinary
wave of Haitian migrants seeking to enter the United States, said on
Thursday that it would fully resume deportations of undocumented Haitian
immigrants.
After an earthquake devastated parts of Haiti in 2010, the United States
suspended deportations, saying that sending Haitians back to the country
at a time of great instability would put their lives at risk. About a
year later, officials partly resumed deportations, focusing on people
convicted of serious crimes or those considered a threat to national
security.
But since last spring, thousands of Haitian migrants who had moved to
Brazil in search of work have been streaming north, mostly by land,
winding up at American border crossings that lead to Southern California.
Few have arrived with American visas, but nearly all have been allowed
to enter the United States because immigration officials were
prohibited, under the modified deportation policy, from using the
so-called fast-track removal process often employed at the border for
new, undocumented arrivals.
Instead, the migrants were placed in a slower deportation process and
released, with an appointment to appear in immigration court at a later
date, officials said. Since early summer, most have been given
permission to remain in the country for as long as three years under a
humanitarian parole provision, immigrant advocates said.
With the full resumption of deportations, which took effect on Thursday
morning, Haitians who arrive at the border without visas will be put
into expedited removal proceedings.
Jeh Johnson, the secretary of Homeland Security, said in a statement
that conditions in Haiti had “improved sufficiently to permit the U.S.
government to remove Haitian nationals on a more regular basis.”
While Mr. Johnson’s statement did not mention the recent influx of
Haitians along the southwestern border, Homeland Security officials,
during a conference call with reporters, cited the migrant wave as the
other major factor in the administration’s decision.
Since last October, officials said, more than 5,000 Haitians without
visas have shown up at the San Ysidro crossing that links Tijuana,
Mexico, with San Diego. By comparison, 339 Haitians without visas
arrived at the San Ysidro crossing in the 2015 fiscal year.
An additional 4,000 to 6,000 Haitians were thought to be making their
way from Brazil, immigrant advocates in San Diego and Tijuana said,
based on estimates from shelters along the Brazil-to-Mexico migration route.
The message to those Haitians from the Obama administration, however,
seems clear: Turn around or go elsewhere.
An uptick in deportations might not occur immediately. Removals require
the cooperation of and paperwork from the receiving country, and
Homeland Security officials said they were still in talks with the
Haitian government about the policy shift.
In the meantime, officials said, nearly all Haitians stopped at the
border and scheduled for accelerated deportations will be put into
detention centers.
Officials clarified, however, that asylum law would continue to apply to
newly arriving Haitians. A migrant who feared returning to Haiti because
of the threat of persecution or torture would be interviewed to
determine whether that fear was credible. If an immigration officer
determined it was, the immigrant could apply for asylum.
Haitian immigrants covered by temporary protected status would be
unaffected by the change in policy.
Over the summer, the unusual surge in Haitian migrants was accompanied
by an equally unusual surge in migrants from more than two dozen other
countries, nearly all traveling along the same arduous routes from South
America, across as many as 10 borders.
The migratory wave has overwhelmed shelters along the way, particularly
in Tijuana, where the shelters have been at or over capacity for much of
the past four months, while also struggling with language and cultural
barriers. Some migrants, because they were unable to find accommodations
or wanted to avoid shelter living, have chosen to sleep on the streets.
Haitians started migrating to Brazil in large numbers after the
earthquake. Haiti was reeling, but Brazil was ascendant, and it had a
need for cheap labor, especially with the World Cup and the Olympics
approaching. Haitians, with few prospects at home, were happy to oblige.
Thousands of them made their way to Brazil, where many were granted
humanitarian visas that allowed them to work.
But amid Brazil’s economic and political convulsions over the last two
years, many Haitians lost their jobs or sank deeper into poverty.
The migration north began in earnest during the spring, with a large
influx in Tijuana in late May, and the surge has continued.
The Haitian migrant population has mainly consisted of men, though many
women have made the trek, too, as have children and even newborns. They
have mainly taken an elaborate series of bus rides, though migrants also
had to travel at times by foot, truck and boat, and have hired smugglers
to help sneak them across certain borders or avoid law enforcement
officials.
They have told of highway robberies, frightening encounters with armed
gangs and beatings. Some migrants have died during the trip, many being
swept away while trying to ford swift-moving rivers.
The shift in American policy caught advocates in San Diego and Tijuana
by surprise.
“It was a complete and utter shock,” said Ginger Jacobs, an immigration
lawyer and the chairwoman of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium.
“We are pretty baffled by what appears to be a complete 180 in terms of
policy.”
She added, “We object to a policy change that doesn’t appear to reflect
any actual change in reality.”
Margarita Andonaegui, the coordinator of a main migrant shelter in
Tijuana, said that on Wednesday afternoon she had received what sounded
like heartening news: The American authorities were going to increase
their processing capacity for the Haitians, to 150 per day from 50.
But in light of the new deportation policy, that piece of information
took on another meaning.
“They’re going to receive them to deport them,” Ms. Andonaegui said.
“That’s bad news.”
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