Analysis: How Haitian migrants ouster from South Texas border adds to 'mosaic of tragedies'

I met O., his wife, newborn baby boy, and two daughters at a welcome center managed by Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition in Del Rio, Texas, one day in mid-September.

O. had studied economics at the State University in Haiti, in the same college where I studied law before practicing journalism. Like thousands of Haitians with few job prospects at home, he sought work in South America at a time when Brazil, Argentina and Chile had plenty of jobs and were offering visas, too. 

For five years, O. worked in a garment factory, and his wife, who came to Brazil later, could never find a job. So, they decided to move to the US for better opportunities.

I still remember the long lines massing at the Brazilian embassy in Port-au-Prince, people trying to get their visa like their whole lives depended on it.

Tragedy upon tragedy in Haiti ― natural disasters, corrupt governance and ineffective international interference ― has pushed thousands of my country's people to engage in a dangerous odyssey that brought them, eventually, to the U.S. border in South Texas.

O. and his family were among the few lucky ones. O.’s wife went into labor under the Del Rio bridge. She was taken to a hospital and escorted back under the bridge to a squalid encampment with the newborn baby two days later. Border agents eventually admitted them to the U.S. to seek asylum, and O. was outfitted with an ankle monitor.

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Thousands more arrived at the border in Del Rio seeking refuge only to find themselves repatriated back to Haiti.

I know the reasons that made Haitians leave their country en masse. But as a journalist, it's my job to collect specific stories. In Del Rio, I collected individual drama. When I put them together, it turns into a mosaic of tragedies. 

200,000-plus deaths lead to Haitian migration

In 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and three other cities. The death toll rose to 2,000, and 1.3 million people were left homeless, forced to shelter in thousands of camps. Official buildings collapsed, including the presidential palace. 

A couple of months later, the country was devastated by an epidemic of cholera. While people were struggling in the camps to find relief, hundreds were perishing under the deadly disease. Cholera killed 10,000 Haitians. An investigation traced the outbreak to a United Nations compound of Nepalese soldiers who brought it to Haiti. 

The next year, in 2011, as people were mourning their dead from the earthquake and cholera, Hurricane Irene destroyed many crops around the country. Not three years later, Haiti faced its worst drought in 35 years, driving 3.6 million of 11 million residents into a situation of severe food insecurity, according to the Haitian National Coordination for Food Security.

I started my career as a reporter after the earthquake, through the devastation of cholera, the hurricane and severe drought. Doing journalism in Haiti is like reporting in a war zone, telling stories when the victims are your family members.

By 2016, thousands of people like O. were leaving Haiti for Brazil and Chile.

Brazil recruited Haitians massively as the country prepared to host the World Cup and Olympic Games; Chile provided Haitians who wished to stay with work authorization.

The exodus was so massive that a charter airline established a direct flight from Port-au-Prince to Santiago, Chile, every day. Hundreds of people came from the countryside to sleep at the airport waiting for their flights. So many emigrants crowded the Toussaint Louverture international airport in Port-au-Prince that authorities arranged additional flights to South America from the smaller Guy Malary airport nearby. 

In 2016 and 2017, Chile admitted nearly 153,000 Haitians, according to Chilean Investigative Police and the Ministry of Interior statistics. In Chile, the PDI is responsible to control the people who enter the Chilean territory.

In 2018, under the new president Sebastían Piñera, the Chilean administration strengthened immigration rules. As a result, Haitian would need a tourist visa and could no longer stay in the country for over 30 days. They could not obtain work permits and do any commercial activity.

“Haitians have been trying to reach U.S.-Mexico since (President) Donald Trump. "There is a powerful network pouring out fake news to these people in Latin America, letting them know the borders are open," said Sherlee Skai, a Haitian artist who was helping with the Haitian Bridge Alliance.”

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In the meantime, Haiti was facing one of the biggest mobilizations of its history. Thousands of people were on the streets denouncing corruption and asking for transparency in public management. Despite police crackdowns, the movement grew bigger as the young generation demanded better living conditions.

Unfortunately, the country was administered by a corrupted government deeply involved in the financial scandal. In 2010, the international community forced Haiti to hold elections despite the devastation of the earthquake. The OAS and the then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, handpicked the Haitian president, Michel Joseph Martelly. It resulted in one of the most irresponsible and corrupted administrations in Haitian history. 

Poverty, gang-rule in Haiti

While these thousands of people were en route to Del Rio, there were 10,000 Haitians who fled their homes in Martissant, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, because of gang violence. Haiti's president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated in his home by a commando allegedly of Colombian mercenaries on July 7, 2021. Before his death, the country had experienced many assassinations and massacres. After 13 years of a UN peacekeeping mission, the country has become more unstable and the gangs have multiplied. 

On Aug. 14, a 7.2 earthquake hit the country's South, killing hundreds and destroying thousands of houses. Then after, the tropical storm Grace came. The indulgence of the gangs allowed Haitians and a couple of international humanitarian organizations to bring relief to the people in the south. When there was a gas shortage in the country, the gangs decided to let the trucks deliver gas to the gas stations. 

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Haiti has currently no parliament, no president, no elected officials in the municipalities. There are only 10 elected senators currently in Haiti.  The Biden administration appointed a Special Envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote. His mission was, among others, to "engage with Haitian and international partners to facilitate long-term peace and stability and support efforts to hold free and fair presidential and legislative elections."

Two months later, Foote resigned with one of the most notable resignation letters from a U.S. diplomat. In this letter, he recognizes that U.S. policy to Haiti remains "deeply flawed." He denounces the "impressive" "hubris" from the U.S. "that make us (USA) believe we should pick the winner — again."

For me, this letter summarizes the failure of the international community in Haiti. Since I was a kid, I witnessed white foreigners making all decisions in Haiti. In 1994, I was a kid in Jérémie, a small city in the South — currently hit by the earthquake — when 20,000 U.S. troops invaded the country. Then, I saw UN missions and international NGOs. The UN peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH who came in 2004, left the country in 2017. But, there's still a UN mission in the country.

In 2010, the international community created the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission to collect billions for the reconstruction. At his head was Bill Clinton, the former U.S. president under whose administration the marines came in 1994. After the devastating earthquake, he recognized the disastrous impact of his administration on Haiti.

"I have to live every day with the lost capacity to produce the rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did," he declared. In the 1980s, Haiti produced most of the rice consumed by its population. Now, 90% of the imported rice comes from the U.S., making Haiti one of the most important markets for U.S. rice. 

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In the 1990s, the news was about the number of boat people on the U.S. shores. Now, Haitians crossed 10 countries to make it to America.

Political instability, mismanagement, and international interference are the reasons why so many Haitians are leaving their country. In the past 25 years, the international community poured billions into Haiti. The UN peacekeeping mission costs at least $7 billion to leave a country more unstable and controlled by gangs.

I tried to track how much the IMF, the IDB, the European Union, and USAID spent the last 25 years. I realized the international community is preaching a gospel of transparency that it does not apply to itself. That is why Foote's resignation letter is so powerful. 

Haitian migrants will come again

In Del Rio, an American journalist asked me how I would describe Haiti.

I told her Haiti is a beautiful country, unique in the region with its music, voodoo, folklore and Creole language. Haiti has one of the most beautiful histories in the world: a slave rebellion that led to the building of a nation-state.

It's the first Black Republic whose people defeated the most powerful army of the 19th century. But then it had to pay France an indemnity for over 100 years. Generations of Haitians have been condemned to poverty because of this. 

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Haiti has been outcasted in a world dominated by slavery and racism. When Martin Luther King advocated for Black rights in 1955, Haiti was already a 150 years independent Black Republic. In the 1970s, Haiti was a tourist destination in the Caribbean, where Hillary and Bill Clinton honeymooned in 1975. But, in the 1980s, scientists falsely reported that Haitians were the source of AIDS in the United States. This enhanced discrimination against Haitians and killed the tourism industry. 

O. told me that he believes life will not be easy for him here in the U.S. But he said that at least the chance exists that he and his wife will find jobs. His dream is to one day return to Haiti. I know Haitians who have been in the U.S. for 50 years. Going home has been their dream, too. But the political and economic situation has only gotten worse in Haiti. 

It’s time for Haitians to define their future and shape the political leadership capable of coping with Haiti’s problems. Of course, Haiti needs international assistance to do so. But the U.S. must stop picking the winners and backing brutal regimes and corrupted leaders.

I am sure my countrymen and women who crossed 10 countries to make it to America will come again, in more significant numbers, if the U.S. does not review its failed policy in Haiti.

Maybe I'll be among them with my family. Who knows?

Ralph Thomasaint Joseph is a Haitian journalist based in New York. He is the director of the publication of the Haitian digital media, Ayibopost.