Haiti Report
Urgent Call to Stop All U.S Deportations to Haiti
In 2023, the Human Rights Clinic, with support from partners, documented conditions rising
to the level of torture in Haitian prisons; urgently calling the U.S. to stop all deportations to Haiti. Read More.
Aftershocks: The Human Impact of U.S. Deportations to Post-Earthquake Haiti
In 2015, the Immigration Clinic and Human Rights Clinic, along with other groups, worked to publish a report documenting the stories of the men and women deported from the United States to post-earthquake Haiti on account of a criminal history. Read More.
Projects
Regional Human Rights Advocacy: Haiti
On December 12, 2022, the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics together with the Penn Law Transnational Legal Clinic, Alternative Chance, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti filed a thematic hearing request (Spanish-language translation can be found here) before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to call attention to the deportation of Haitian nationals from the United States to Haiti in violation of its human rights obligations.
On January 6, 2011, the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Alternative Chance and the Loyola Law Clinic and Center for Social Justice filed an emergency petition for precautionary measures with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to halt the roundups, detention, and imminent deportations of hundreds of Haitian nationals by the United States government. To read a summary of the petition for precautionary measures, click here. To read the entire petition, click here. In March 2023, petitioners filed a response to the IACHR on the precautionary measures granted.
The IACHR requested that the United States respond to the petition by January 19, 2011 (see letter). The next day, the United States deported 27 men to Haiti. All of the men were detained in squalid and life-threatening conditions in Haiti under a longstanding policy of the Haitian government to detain all deportees who have a U.S. criminal record. After spending a week in Haitian jail, one of the deported men, Wildrick Guerrier, 34, demonstrated cholera-like symptoms and died shortly thereafter. Guerrier, a former lawful permanent resident, left behind a large family in the United States, including his fiancé and her son, his mother, and brothers and sisters.
On February 4, 2011 the IACHR granted the request for precautionary measures. The IACHR urged the United States to suspend deportations of the five Haitians named in the petition until Haiti is able to guarantee that detention conditions and access to medical care for persons in custody comply with applicable minimum standards and until the United States has implemented procedures that take into account the deportees' human rights to life and family.
To read a letter to the IACHR in support of the petition, signed by over 80 organizations and nearly 200 legal experts, advocates and others, please click here.
On March 26, 2011 the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics appeared before the IACHR in a formal working meeting to argue against the resumed deportations to Haiti. To read the submission submitted by the Clinics and their partners for the working meeting, click here.
In 2023, in response to the U.S. continuing to deport people to Haiti during one of the worst political, economic, and humanitarian crises the country has experienced, the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics together with several human rights organizations requested a thematic hearing with the IACHR detailing the grave risks to life, personal security, health and well-being confronting individuals deported from the U.S. In the thematic hearing request, it was noted that deportees who had a past criminal record were particularly vulnerable to persecution by Haitian police, which has resulted in at least one death. The IACHR granted the request, and a thematic hearing was held on March 9, 2023.
Domestic Policy Advocacy: Haiti
The Clinics are also working in collaboration with other groups to advocate with domestic policy makers to stop the deportations to Haiti. This advocacy has involved meeting with local and DC-based government officials and helping to foster a broad coalition of advocacy groups and community-based organizations that oppose the Haiti deportations.
In March, 2011 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted on it website a draft policy stating its intention to resume deportations. An overwhelming number of organizations and individuals opposed the policy in written comments. To read these comments, click here. To read the Sign-On Letter authored by the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics and signed onto by 280 organizations and individuals, click here.
On April 1, 2011 ICE formally issued its deportation policy to resume deportations. To reach the Statement of the Clinics against this policy, click here. To read the Statement in Spanish, click here.
On January 12, 2023, the University of Miami School of Law Human Rights and Immigration Clinics alongside partners, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Alternative Chance, the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Transnational Legal Clinic, and Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, called on the Biden Administration and the Department of Homeland Security to stop all deportations to Haiti. To read the letter addressed to President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas on the anniversary of the devasting 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010, in which the above-named human right activists and 135 signatories urged the U.S. to cease the deportation of individuals with past criminal convictions or criminal charges to Haiti, click here. A press release is also available here. The letter is based on a human rights report available here.
Individual Case Representation: Haiti
The Immigration Clinic is also helping individual Haitian men detained in Louisiana who are facing imminent removal to Haiti by representing them in their individual cases under U.S. immigration law or matching them with pro bono counsel. Pro bono counsel interested in taking a case should contact Rebecca Sharpless, rsharpless@law.miami.edu.
Resources
Guide for Haitians in Detention
Read our Guide for Haitians in Immigration Detention (December 2011). This guide explains how you can ask U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to temporarily stop your deportation until conditions in Haiti improve.
Congressional Briefing Flyer
View Congressional briefing flyer (March 2012) with the latest updates on Haitian deportations.
United Nations Advocacy
Shadow Reports to U.N.
On June 30, 2014 the Human Rights and Immigration Clinics contributed to a Shadow Report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination regarding Deportation from the United States to Haiti: A Violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
- The Human Rights and Immigration Clinics recently contributed to a "shadow report" submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in anticipation of the upcoming review of the United States' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Geneva in October 2013.
In February 2014, the clinic submitted an update to their original shadow report. Click here to read the update on U.S. Deportations to Haiti.
- The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights held a formal working meeting on deportations to Haiti on November 3, 2012. On November 16, 2012, the commission issued a press release stating:
"The Inter-American Commission again calls on the United States to suspend deportations to Haiti of persons of Haitian origin who have are seriously ill or who have family members in the United States, especially when those family members are children and those at risk of deportation were the family's primary breadwinners. This suspension should be maintained until Haiti can guarantee that access to medical treatment meets the minimum applicable standards."
The full text of the IACHR's statement relating to the Deportation of Haitian Nationals by the United States is located in Part II of the press release available here.
- Read the op-ed by Miami Law Clinic students Drew Aiken and Erin Lewis Deportations to Haiti Threaten Lives and Tear Families Apart (Caribbean Journal, Sept. 19, 2012)
- Read the statement presented on July 3, 2012 at the United Nations Human Rights Council by the ACLU, UM's Human Rights and Immigration Clinics, and others concerning Haitian deportations from the U.S. following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
UN Expert, Miami Law Clinics Call For Halt Of Deportations To Haiti
The U.N.'s Independent Expert on human rights in Haiti, as well as UM Clinics and South Florida immigration advocates, have renewed their call on the United States, Dominican Republic and others to halt deportations to Haiti. To learn more, click on the links below.
Partners
For more information, visit our partners' websites:
