Haitian Mass Migration Sparks National Debate
FAIR Take | September 2024
Mass immigration from Haiti has not only caught the attention of and sparked debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, but national media is getting a first-hand view of communities that have seen surges in the Haitian populations. Reporters have so far focused their attention on two small communities – Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania – as examples of how the influx of illegal aliens is affecting American communities. What media fails to mention, however, is how the Biden-Harris policies have created the crises in these communities.
The number of illegal aliens arriving from Haiti has grown dramatically since FY 2021. In fact, the number of Haitians encountered by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has increased 343 percent since 2021: 48,727 Haitians were encountered in FY 2021; 56,596 in FY 2022; 163,781 in FY 2023; and 215,987 in FY 2024 to-date. In total, CBP has encountered nearly half a million Haitians (482,037) between February 2021 and August 2024. This staggering figure does not include Haitians who avoided detection and managed to sneak in as “gotaways.”
The Biden-Harris Administration has encouraged illegal immigration through several disastrous policies. First, the administration has made 569,000 Haitians eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS shields a country’s nationals from deportation when temporary conditions, such as environmental disasters or civil unrest, make it difficult for aliens to be safely deported. Previous TPS designations have proven not to be as “temporary” as the title suggests. 155,000 Haitians were estimated to be eligible for TPS at the time of the March 2021 designation. TPS was extended in December 2022. In June 2024, the administration extended and re-designated Haiti for TPS, making 414,000 more Haitians eligible. As of August 2024, 200,000 Haitians have been approved for TPS benefits, which include work authorization.
In addition to abusing the TPS statute, the Biden-Harris administration created the Cuba-Haiti-Nicaragua-Venezuela parole program in January 2023. This program, also called the CHNV program, allows 360,000 nationals annually from these four countries to enter the U.S. without a visa, regardless of whether they meet any of the family, employment, or humanitarian-based immigration requirements imposed by federal law, if they are sponsored by someone within the United States. You need not be a U.S. citizen to sponsor a Haitian. Indeed, once in the U.S., Haitian parolees can sponsor other parolees, perpetuating the influx regardless of how it impacts American communities. Furthermore, individuals may sponsor Haitians on behalf of non-profit organizations seeking to funnel illegal aliens to the U.S. or businesses looking for cheap labor. One Facebook group with over 10,000 members appears to be for Haitians seeking this sponsorship.
The CHNV parole program has been politically advantageous to the Biden-Harris Administration because it has created the appearance that illegal immigration from Haiti has dropped. However, in reality, the programs simply changed the routes Haitians take by allowing them to bypass the southern border and arrive at interior international airports. Between October FY21 and January FY23, almost all Haitians encountered (over 95 percent) were encountered at the Southwest land border. By FY 2024, 213,323 of the 215,987 (99 percent) being encountered were encountered at internal ports of entry. This has had a major impact on internal ports of entry. For example, between October 2021 and January 2023 (the creation of CHNV), just over 1,600 Haitians were encountered at the Miami Field Office. As of August 2024, over 178,000 Haitians have been encountered at the Miami Field Office.
The Biden-Harris Administration has rationalized and sold the CHNV program, and its other gross abuses of parole, as a policy that would “reduce the number of individuals crossing unlawfully.” Not only is the policy a violation of federal law, which requires that parole only be granted temporarily and on a case-by-case basis, the data clearly demonstrate that the administration’s policy is a dishonest shell game.
While Haitians have been the focus of media attention in recent news cycles, the scale and speed of mass migration of all nationalities have been unprecedented. The only way to restore public trust and restore a semblance of order and rationality to our broken immigration system is to implement proper border controls. If this is not done, Haitians, and others, will continue to arrive in unsustainable numbers.