(Bloomberg) -- Behind Donald Trump’s recent political rhetoric about Haitian migrants is a sobering reality: Fleeing horrific gang violence and crushing hunger, people from the embattled Caribbean nation are flocking to the US in record numbers.
US Customs and Border Protection recorded 220,798 “encounters” with Haitians in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, which are based on counts of people using certain legal pathways into the US as well as those apprehended trying to get in. The figures are up 35% from the previous year and are the highest in at least a decade, according to data released this week.
The surge follows a brutal gang war in Haiti that has killed more than 3,600 people this year and pushed about 5.4 million Haitians, or roughly half the population, into severe hunger, according to the United Nations. That’s led hundreds of thousands of residents to seek refuge abroad at a time immigration has become a central issue in the US presidential race — with the country’s turmoil likely to continue well beyond the Nov. 5 election.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has seized on immigration to advocate for mass deportations. In interviews and at rallies, he’s accused Haitians of overwhelming towns and eating domestic animals in Ohio, claims that have been widely debunked.
The political attention is making life for the new wave of migrants that much more painful, said Sammy Lamy, who runs Jobs For Us, a workforce-placement program for Haitians in Florida. The state is home to Trump and about half of the Haitian diaspora in the US.
“We’re not thieves, we’re not cat eaters, we’re just normal people from a war-torn country,” Lamy said. The US has “the resources that common people need for life: a school, healthy food, a functional government. You just don’t have that in Haiti.”
The US Customs data released Tuesday counts foreigners apprehended at border crossings, those stopped at sea, and those deported from the US. But it also includes migrants who are entering the US under humanitarian parole programs.
Haitians represented the third-largest group of migrants by nationality in the fiscal year, behind Mexicans (668,088 encounters) and Venezuelans (313,496). Those countries, however, have far bigger populations.
Overall, US CBP encounters with foreigners fell 9% in the recently ended year from fiscal 2023, the data show. The agency said in a statement, that it was seeing a “meaningful decrease in unlawful border crossings” since President Joe Biden’s administration enacted tighter controls in June.
The CBP also said it had deported more than 700,000 people during the 2024 fiscal year — more than any year since 2010.
Mixed Policies
The US isn’t alone in seeing the Haitian spike. Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and other Caribbean nations have also seen an influx. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, recently announced it will begin deporting 10,000 undocumented Haitians per week.
Haiti has been trapped in political turmoil and violence for years, but was thrust deeper into chaos after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Since then, the Biden administration has provided more than $1.2 billion in development, security assistance and humanitarian aid to the country.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, worked to rally regional support for a multinational security force to assist Haiti’s beleaguered police. Kenya agreed to lead that effort earlier this year, and has about 400 troops on the ground.
In 2023, the administration rolled out a humanitarian “parole” program for Haitians, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans. While it requires them to apply from their home country and buy their own airplane tickets, it allows them to stay in the US for up to two years. Of the 618,670 people who have been admitted under the process, 228,380 are Haitian.
Yet US policies have also contributed to Haiti’s turmoil, said Guerda Nicolas, the president of the Ayiti Community Trust, which runs rural development projects in the country.
The US and the international community have influenced the outcome of elections, hurt local farmers by flooding the market with subsidized rice and enacted trade policies that have helped destabilize the country, she said. The US has also been singled out for being the source of weapons that have allowed Haitian gangs to take control of large swathes of the nation.
Programs like parole siphon away needed talent, she said.
“These programs are exporting people outside of the country — some of our best brains, physicians and nurses,” Nicolas said. “And they’re leaving the chaos that the US and others have helped create.”
William O’Neill, the UN’s designated expert on human rights in Haiti, recently blamed the US program for undermining the Haitian security force, which he said has fallen from about 9,000 police officers to 7,000 in just a few months.
“Some have been killed and others have left the country under the Biden parole program, and I don’t blame them,” he said.
Regardless of who wins the election, things could be tougher for Haitians. Earlier this month, Biden announced the parole program won’t be renewed.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.