Haiti reels as Trump severs a lifeline

Miami Herald

3 days ago

Born in northeast Haiti with a heart defect, Brad Mertens Joseph is 6, has difficulty walking and is still in diapers.
His parents, accustomed to a dangerous nine-hour overnight bus ride to see cardiologists in the country's violent capital, had finally found a solution to their son's medical ailment, caused by a hole in his heart.
It involved open-heart surgery in Akron, Ohio, arranged by a nonprofit.
Those plans collapsed this past week when President Donald Trump issued an order banning people from a dozen countries, including Haiti, who don't already have valid travel visas, from entering the United States
'When I heard that, I was really upset, and I wondered, 'What are we going to do?'' said the boy's father, Dieudonné Joseph. 'I was panicking, and I'm still panicking.'
The Josephs are among the many Haitians who are caught in the middle of Trump's sweeping travel ban. From young professionals to medical residents to longtime visitors whose visas had lapsed, Haitians are bracing for the consequences of having a lifeline abruptly cut.
With its proximity to Florida, a long (often difficult) history with the United States, and grave political and social upheaval, Haiti has strong family and economic ties with its northern neighbor. People have businesses in both countries, and most middle-class Haitians have close relatives in South Florida or New York.
The ban was the latest in a series of blows the United States has dealt to Haiti, a nation currently overrun by gangs and in the throes of a security crisis, and which is heavily dependent on international aid organizations and remittances from migrants in the United States.
'We feel like not only Haiti has been hit very hard, but also the whole world has been hit very hard by this decision, especially those small countries who believed the United States of America were their best friends,' said Joseph, 42, who works at a bank.
If Brad does not receive the surgery, he is not likely to live past 30, said Dr. John Clark, a pediatric cardiologist at Akron Children's Hospital who was set to treat the boy this summer.
More than 300 other Haitians, mostly children, are on waiting lists for surgery and are now unable to get treatment because they are barred from traveling to the United States, said Owen Robinson, the executive director of the International Cardiac Alliance, a nonprofit group based in the U.S. that arranged for Brad's treatment in Ohio.
Finding enough doctors and hospitals in other countries to make up for the sudden loss will be extraordinarily difficult.
'If we could, we would,' Robinson said.
Haitian Hearts, an organization in Illinois, was hoping to secure travel for Suze Lapierre, 46, who had cardiac surgery in the United States 21 years ago and needs a valve replaced. She is unemployed, was forced to flee her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, because of gang violence, and, with most hospitals there closed, is out of any other options for her heart problem.
In announcing the ban, Trump said that he had decided to 'fully restrict' people from Haiti because visitors from there overstayed their visas at least 25% of the time.
'I cannot be mad at Donald Trump. He is building his country, and he has the right to do it the way he wants,' Lapierre said in a telephone interview. 'I believe we have to fix our own country.'
Haiti is engulfed in an extraordinary political, humanitarian and security crisis. Its last elected president was assassinated nearly four years ago, and the resulting power vacuum created an opening for gangs, long supported by the country's political and economic elite, to thrive.
The armed groups joined forces last year in an explosion of violence that forced more than 1 million people from their homes and killed more than 5,000 people.
The Trump administration recently declared the gangs terrorist organizations, a designation that helped land Haiti on the list of banned nations.
The Trump administration also rescinded an immigration designation known as Temporary Protected Status that shielded more than 500,000 Haitians from deportation and revoked a program that had allowed more than 200,000 Haitians to move to the United States.
Trump's proclamation said the secretary of state could issue travel waivers in cases that were in the 'national interest' of the United States. Asked to clarify if that could apply to children with medical conditions, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offered a statement that did not answer the question.
'President Trump's action to limit the entry of foreign nationals from countries who have a significant terrorist presence, inadequate screening and vetting processes, and high visa overstay rates will help secure the American homeland and make our communities safer,' Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement.
The State Department said in a statement that there could be case-by-case waivers but added that it would not 'get into hypotheticals or specific cases about application' of the president's order.
In some ways, Haiti was already under a de facto travel ban: The main international airport in Port-au-Prince has been closed since November after gangs fired at several U.S. aircraft.
With the main airport closed, the U.S. Embassy on limited staffing and roads to another airport too dangerous, travelers have had to spend thousands of dollars to first go by helicopter to Cap-Haitien, in northern Haiti, and then fly to Barbados, Jamaica or other countries with functioning U.S. embassies to obtain or renew the visas they need to enter the United States.
The onerous and expensive journey means many Haitians have visas that have now expired.
That has left families and businesspeople with tough choices, said Pierre A. Noel, executive director of the Haiti Development Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit.
Many Haitian professionals who have remained in Haiti through the turmoil had sent their children to safety in the United States and now risk long separations, he said. With graduation season in full swing, Haitian parents are at a loss about what to do.
People working in Haiti and currently traveling in the United States are having to make decisions now on whether they should go back home and when, Noel said. 'And if they do go back, when would they next be able to see their family,' he said.
People with businesses that rely on unencumbered travel between the United States and Haiti are deciding whether to keep their companies afloat and retain their workers, he said.
Several Haitians interviewed expressed disappointment at the United States for, among other things, the well-known flow of illicit guns from Florida to Haitian gangs.
Still, many people also stressed that the travel ban underscores the need to strengthen the interim government ruling Haiti until a new presidential election can be held.
Cassandre V., 49, who lives in Port-au-Prince, said her visa expires in a year and is praying that her aging parents in the United States do not get sick. She spoke on the condition that her last name not be published because she did not have permission from her employer to speak to the news media.
'We feel like the States let Haiti down,' she said. 'What is going on? Are they leaving us to die? Every one of us?'
Wolf Pamphile, executive director of the Haiti Policy House, a Washington-based research institute, said even Haitians with visas or U.S. residency are afraid to travel to the United States.
'This is a huge slap in the face,' Pamphile said. 'This should be a defining moment for the Haitian government. What are they going to do?'
Haiti's prime minister declined to comment, and its presidential council — a committee formed to govern the country until elections are held -- did not respond to requests for comment.
The Haitian Foreign Ministry, in a statement Thursday, said it was working to find a 'rapid' solution, especially for businesspeople and families divided between Haiti and the United States.
'This decision comes at a moment when the Haitian government is striving, with the help of its international partners, to fight the insecurity and to strengthen border security,' the Foreign Ministry said.
Humanitarian groups stressed that the ban would hamper their ability to train Haitian staff and government technocrats.
'If we want to not be an NGO in Haiti forever, we need to be able to strengthen our relationship with the public sector,' said Sasha Kramer, executive director of SOIL, which works on improving Haiti's sanitation.
Zanmi Lasante, an organization allied with Partners in Health, which runs medical facilities in Haiti, said at least 40 of its Haitian staff will be unable to attend training in the United States.
'We feel like we are on our own,' said Wesler Lambert, Zanmi Lasante's executive director.
He said he would welcome senior members of the Trump administration to visit Haiti and 'meet the inspiring people they are excluding and witness the lifesaving work they are jeopardizing.'
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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