“The conditions we saw on the ground were simply horrible (…) This is not the right time to send people back to Haiti…We are sending them into a totally chaotic situation,” Representative Ami Bera, a Democrat from California and member of a congressional delegation that visited Haiti this week amid the end of TPS putting 350,000 at risk of deportation to Haiti, told the Miami Herald on Friday.
“The conditions we saw on the ground were simply horrible (…) This is not the right time to send people back to Haiti…We’re sending them into a totally chaotic situation,” Congressman Ami Bera, a Democrat from California and member of a delegation of lawmakers that visited Haiti this week amid the end of TPS putting 350,000 at risk of deportation to Haiti, told the Miami Herald on Friday. The congressman said he specifically questioned the Prime Minister about Cap-Haïtien, after top State Department official Michael Kozak stated in a congressional hearing that deported individuals were being sent to that city rather than to Port-au-Prince, implying that it could handle the influx.Exchanges with Haitian officials
“The Prime Minister replied to me: ‘No, Cap-Haïtien cannot accommodate more people. It’s not a city designed for over a million inhabitants, and you would only be creating a new crisis there,'” Bera reported.The delegation also met with Defense Minister Mario Andrésol, former director general of the National Police of Haiti for seven years and now in charge of rebuilding the armed forces, as well as with the acting director general of the National Police of Haiti, André Jonas Vladimir Paraison.
Both of them talked about the huge challenges facing Haiti’s security forces as armed groups expand their control into new parts of the country, according to this article.
For Bera, this situation, combined with the still limited capabilities of the new Gang Suppression Force, makes the end of TPS particularly worrying. Along with his colleagues, he also met with the leaders of this new unit.”We want to stay optimistic,” Bera said about this force, “but it’s still ramping up and hasn’t reached its full capacity. It will take time.”
Bera acknowledges that the administration might not heed his call regarding TPS. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a notice announcing the end of TPS protections, even though the federal judge whose injunction had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court has not yet officially lifted the suspension she had imposed.
Still, the Democratic representative says he still plans to reach out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.”I understand that a temporary measure is, by definition, temporary, but this decision betrays our values,” Bera said. “This is not who we are. We shouldn’t be sending these people back into a chaotic situation where they risk being killed, kidnapped, and have nowhere to live.”
He also plans to convince his Senate colleagues to support a bill that would extend Haitian TPS for an additional three years. This measure has already passed the House of Representatives with the backing of some Republican lawmakers.
“We need to give the Gang Suppression Force time to reach its full strength of over 5,000 members. We need to keep training the Haitian National Police and the Haitian armed forces,” Bera concluded. “Let’s pass this law, extend TPS until 2029, and give the country three more years,” he said. Bera was part of a delegation made up of two Democratic representatives and two Republican representatives who traveled to Port-au-Prince. The mission was led by Florida Republican Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Florida Republican Kat Cammack and Illinois Democrat Jonathan Jackson also took part in the trip, along with their legislative staff.
