The US deported dozens of children without Haitian passports to Haiti, report says
REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol
- The Biden administration is working to disperse thousands of Haitian migrants from the border.
- It sent 41 children to Haiti even though they don't hold Haitian passports, CNN reported, citing the IOM.
- As of Wednesday, the US has deported 1,424 people to Haiti, the IOM said.
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The US deported dozens of children to Haiti even though they don't have Haitian passports, CNN reported, citing the UN's International Organization for Migration.
In the past week the IOM identified a total of 170 children deported as part of US efforts to remove thousands of Haitians gathered at the US-Mexico border, CNN reported.
Forty one of them did not hold Haitian passports, the report said, citing Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission for the IOM. Thirty had Chilean passports, nine had Brazilian passports, and two had Venezuelan passports, Loprete said.
The Biden administration has been working to break up some 14,000 Haitians who have in recent months gathered under a bridge connecting Del Rio, Texas, with Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
The administration had justified the deportations using Title 42, a Trump-era policy which permitted US officials to expel asylum seekers and migrants because they could spread COVID-19. On September 16, a US federal judge said the US had two weeks to stop expelling families with children.
Many of those gathered at the border have already been turned back into Mexico by US Border Patrol agents. As of Thursday, around 4,000 remained at the border, the Associated Press reported, citing the Department of Homeland Security.
As of Wednesday, the US has sent at least 1,424 people back to Haiti on 12 flights, Loprete said, per CNN.
In recent years, thousands of Haitians have fled to escape political and environmental turmoil, but more have come following the recent assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
The Biden administration and US Border Patrol agents are facing bipartisan criticism for their efforts.
Last week, video footage showing mounted US Border Patrol agents charging at Haitian migrants while carrying whips was condemned by several members of Congress.
"These are human rights abuses, plain and simple. Cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law," Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted.
Daniel Foote, the US special envoy for Haiti, resigned on Thursday in protest over the "inhumane" way the US was treating Haitian asylum seekers.
The Biden administration, which is struggling to control the situation at the border, now wants to open a 400-person migrant detention facility in Guantanamo Bay with the help of a private contractor, NBC News reported.