At a congressional field hearing on Tuesday, IJDH’s Brian Concannon detailed the conditions on the ground in Haiti that deported Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders would face if TPS for Haiti were terminated on February 3. The hearing was convened by Representative Ayanna Pressley and Senator Ed Markey, with Representative Seth Moulton also joining.
“We all know that it is not safe for families to return to Haiti,” said Concannon. “Many of us here today are hearing frequent, desperate reports from family, friends and colleagues throughout Haiti who confront high risks of violence every time they go to school, to work, or to buy food. Gangs control 90% of Port-au-Prince, and large areas elsewhere. The country has the highest murder rate in the world and has the seventh highest Global Hunger Index score in the world. Many others tell us Haiti is unsafe too,” including Members of Congress and the State Department, with these conditions even acknowledged by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) itself.
If all 350,000 Haitian TPS holders were returned to Haiti, Concannon noted,
“Haiti’s approximately 9000 homicides in 2025, would equal 263 deaths among the returned TPS holders.
The 1.4 million Haitians currently displaced by violence would equal 42,000 of TPS holders.
The 5.7 million Haitians facing acute food insecurity would equal 166,250 among returned TPS holders.”
“Since the November 28 [DHS TPS] termination announcement, conditions in Haiti have continued to decline,” continued Concannon. “More than half of all healthcare facilities in Port-au-Prince have closed,” while “Haiti is facing a governance crisis” as its transitional council, with a soon-expiring mandate, has neither established security nor run fair elections.
Despite DHS justifications for TPS termination, “Haiti is currently one of the most dangerous countries in the world and getting more dangerous by the day. Its people are already suffering from uncontrolled gang violence and malnutrition and face a looming political crisis on February 7. Uprooting 350,000 of our TPS recipient neighbors from their homes, their communities, their workplaces and their schools and sending them to Haiti where they are unlikely to find safe housing, employment, adequate food or healthcare will exacerbate the crisis in Haiti, and with statistical certainty will lead to murders, sexual assault, hunger and displacement for many of them.”
Read Concannon’s full remarks here and watch Concannon’s presentation here.
Read Senator Markey and Representative Pressley’s statement about the hearing here.
Read more about the hearing featured in NBC Boston here, the Dorchester Reporter here, WBUR here, and The Boston Globe here.
