Here’s What To Know About The Gang Crisis In Haiti—As U.S. Preps For Potential Influx Of Refugees
The U.S. is bracing for an influx of Haitian migrants as political unrest in the country has fueled rampant gang violence and severely curbed access to basic necessities, including food, water and health care—what’s shaping up to be the latest flashpoint in the partisan immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
Emboldened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, Haitian gangs have consolidated to form an alliance known as the G9 Family and Allies, led by a former top police officer, Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier.
Cherizier was a key force in compelling Prime Minister Ariel Henry’s resignation Monday, threatening “civil war” if he did not step down.
U.S. officials are now bracing for an influx of Haitian migrants fleeing the crisis and are taking steps to deliver additional humanitarian aid and install a multinational security force in Haiti—efforts that have become the latest source of a partisan blame game on Capitol Hill.
The Biden administration is urging Congress to release $40 million in additional aid that would facilitate the deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti as part of a U.N.-authorized international police force, but the plans have been stalled as Republican congressional leaders have resisted releasing the funds, alleging the plan lacks detail, while Kenya’s high court in January ruled the deal was unconstitutional.
Separately, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced Friday an additional $25 million in humanitarian aid to Haiti, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday $100 million to deploy the multinational force to Haiti, following a meeting in Jamaica with Caribbean leaders.
The Biden administration is also reportedly considering reopening a migrant processing center at Guantanamo Bay in anticipation of a surge in refugees, according to CNN, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has mobilized the National Guard and state police to “stop the potential influx of illegal immigration from Haiti,” his office said in a statement Wednesday.
TANGENT
Republicans have deployed alarmist rhetoric in highlighting the potential influx of Haitian migrants as the latest flashpoint in the immigration debate. Former President Donald Trump claimed on Truth Social on Thursday “hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country from Haiti” and are “headed to Florida.” Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, was among a coalition of Republican lawmakers who highlighted the arrest of a Haitian migrant for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl at a migrant housing facility in Massachusetts. Nehls alleged on X, formerly known as Twitter, the “Biden Administration flew him into our country and released him on parole,” referring to reports he was allowed into the U.S. under a federal humanitarian parole program expanded in January last year to citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. On social media, right-wing provocateurs also spread unfounded claims of cannibalism tied to the crisis. X removed a video purporting to show cannibalism in Haiti that its owner, Elon Musk, shared on the platform, citing a violation of its rules, Bloomberg reported.
BIG NUMBER
76,130. That’s the number of Haitian migrants U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, according to agency statistics. Encounters have increased since Moise’s assassination in 2021, when CBP reported 47,255 encounters that fiscal year and 53,910 in fiscal year 2022.
KEY BACKGROUND
Reports of violence in Haiti surged in recent weeks as pressure grew on Henry to resign. Henry—who Moise appointed prime minister days before his assassination and became acting president after Moise was killed—had promised to step down by Feb. 7. Forced out of the country and stranded in Puerto Rico, Henry agreed to leave office once a transitional government is put in place and a new election is organized. The United Nations estimates that killings nearly doubled last year in Haiti, to nearly 5,000, amid the rise in gang violence. Cherizier’s alliance now controls an estimated 80% of Port-au-Prince and has claimed responsibility for mass jailbreaks and kidnappings. The U.S., in coordination with the United Nations, has been pushing for a multinational police force to tamp down on the violence since Moise’s assassination, while Democrats have called for the Biden administration to help set up legitimate elections to stabilize the future of democracy in Haiti. The crisis comes as the U.S. is coping with a surge in migrant encounters at the southern border—the source of a bitter partisan feud that weighs heavily on the 2024 election.
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