Stop Haiti Deportations

Dear President Obama, Secretary Clinton, and Secretary Napolitano,

I urge you to halt deportations to Haiti.

Conditions in Haiti are deteriorating. Haiti is struggling with a cholera epidemic that a recent study published in the medical journal Lancet found may affect twice as many people as previously thought. As international aid agencies end their service contracts, over a million people remain homeless in tent camps and face chronic hunger, threats of eviction, and lack of essentials such as water and medical care. No one should be deported to Haiti during this humanitarian crisis.

Deportees are jailed in filthy police stations in Haiti with no access to clean water or food and are exposed to human feces and vomit. These conditions during a cholera epidemic are – quite literally – deadly. Wildrick Guerrier, age 34, died from cholera-like symptoms after being deported to Haiti in January 2011, and others have become ill. Many of those deported on April 15, 2011 had serious medical and mental health conditions. Additionally, deportees often leave behind children who are US citizens, as well as other family members.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has already urged the United States not to deport Haitian petitioners to Haiti and expressed serious concern that the deportations would separate families and place people with medical conditions in life-threatening conditions.

Please live up to your pledge to uphold human rights and halt these inhumane and cruel deportations to Haiti.

Sincerely,