A state department spokesperson insisted that
Daniel Foote had “mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation” as the
US envoy to Haiti.
“It is unfortunate that, instead of participating
in a solutions-oriented policy process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned
and mischaracterized the circumstances of his resignation,” Ned Price said in a
statement.
“He failed to take advantage of ample opportunity
to raise concerns about migration during his tenure and chose to resign
instead.”
Daniel Foote excoriates Washington in letter addressed
to Antony Blinken for deporting hundreds from a border camp
Julian
Borger in Washington
Thu 23 Sep
2021 16.33 BST
The US
envoy to Haiti has resigned after just two months in the role, in protest at
what he called the Biden administration’s “inhumane” mass deportation of
Haitian migrants and asylum-seekers to what he said was a highly dangerous
“collapsed state”.
Daniel Foote’s angry resignation letter is a serious
blow for an administration which came to office promising a more humane
approach to immigration in the wake of Donald Trump’s policy of child
separation. The state department rejected Foote’s criticism and said he had
given a misleading account of his resignation.
The Biden
administration has been struggling to deal with a recent surge of Haitian
migrants and refugees fleeing the implosion of the country’s society after the
assassination in July of its president, Jovenel Moïse, triggered chaos that was
then compounded by a powerful earthquake in August.
Foote, who
has previously served as deputy chief of mission in Haiti and ambassador in
Zambia, was appointed special envoy after Moïse’s killing, which remains
unsolved.
A member
with the Border Humanitarian Coalition, right, guides migrants, mostly from
Haiti, as they are released from United States Border Patrol custody upon
crossing the Texas-Mexico border in search of asylum, Wednesday, Sept. 22,
2021, in Del Rio, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
After some
14,000 migrants gathered in an impromptu camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas,
the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) bureau started flying hundreds
out on multiple flights every day, without the opportunity for asylum appeals
or hearings.
“I will not
be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to
deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country
where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger
posed by armed gangs to daily life,” Foote said in his letter to the secretary
of state, Antony Blinken, that was leaked on Thursday.
“Our policy
approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have
been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different
from my own.”
“The people
of Haiti, mired in poverty, hostage to the terror, kidnappings, robberies and
massacres of armed gangs and suffering under a corrupt government with gang
alliances, simply cannot support the forced infusion of thousands of returned
migrants lacking food, shelter and money without additional avoidable human
tragedy,” Foote said, arguing that the deportation policy was self-defeating as
it would only fuel more migration.
“The
collapsed state is unable to provide security or basic services, and more
refugees will fuel further desperation, and crime. Surging migration to our
borders will only grow as we will add to Haiti’s unacceptable misery.”
The
deportations are being carried out under a previously obscure public health
law, Title 42, which was used for summary expulsions by the Trump
administration and has been continued under Joe Biden. The head of the UN
refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, has said the use of Title 42, without any due
process or screening for potential peril faced by deportees might violate
international law.
Responding
to Foote’s letter, the state department spokesman, Ned Price, said:“There have
been multiple senior-level policy conversations on Haiti, where all proposals,
including those led by Special Envoy Foote, were fully considered in a rigorous
and transparent policy process.
“Some of
those proposals were determined to be harmful to our commitment to the
promotion of democracy in Haiti and were rejected during the policy process.
For him to say his proposals were ignored is simply false,” Price added.
“It is
unfortunate that, instead of participating in a solutions-oriented policy
process, Special Envoy Foote has both resigned and mischaracterized the
circumstances of his resignation.”
The
publication of Foote’s letter comes just days after shocking pictures were
published showing US border patrol agents on horseback using their reins on
desperate Haitian refugees by the banks of the Rio Grande. The administration
has been assailed from both human rights groups for the deportations and the
treatment of migrants, and from the right for the decision to release thousands
of the Haitians into the US in order to alleviate the conditions in Del Rio.
The
administration is also making preparations to reopen a migrant detention centre
on Guantánamo Bay, close to the prison camp for detainees picked up in the “war
on terror” and has asked private contractors for tenders for a contract to
supply guards who speak Creole and Spanish.
Democratic
congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez called the plan “utterly shameful”.
The Department
of Homeland Security, which oversees Ice, said on Wednesday it had deported
1,401 migrants from the Del Rio camp to Haiti and taken a further 3,206 into
custody.
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