Logo: Michelle Karshan and staff and participants of Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ in Haiti

Very Brief Overview of Haitian Government Response to Criminal Deportation to Haiti

Image: Deported to Haiti on a commercial flight with US Marshals by Nope

Deported to Haiti on a commercial flight with US Marshal escorts by Nope

Criminal Deportation to Haiti under the Various Governments of Haiti

Criminal Deportation to Haiti under the Various Governments of Haiti. Since the early 1980s the United States was deporting non-citizens to their home countries if a judge ordered deportation based on the severity of one’s conviction. This was reserved for the most serious of cases.

Haiti received its repatriated citizens and processed them quickly through their police and immigration offices letting them free within a day or so.

Immediately following President Preval’s inauguration in 1996 the U.S. instituted its 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act which mandated forced deportation for all non-citizens who were convicted of a crime that was perceived by the INS as an aggravated felony – even if the state statute under which the person was convicted did not categorize the crime as such.

Further, this new law stripped judges of judicial discretion. Although later challenged, the INS originally interpreted this new law as giving them the authority to deport people for retroactive convictions that may even have been from 20 years earlier.

This interpretation and the subsequent wide scale search for such persons led to a dramatic increase in deportations and Haiti, which had just recently returned to democratic order after a three year coup period and had only recently graduated its first civilian police force, was ill prepared to receive this new influx of Criminal Deportees.

Many countries, particularly in the Caribbean region, demanded certain standards from the US regarding the deportation process such as advance notice of deportation, etc. (and are still engaged in discussions with the US).

Haiti, as many other countries had done, set about to negotiate these terms with the US as well and refused to receive new criminal deportees until the conclusion of the negotiations.

By time the Haitian government and the US had reached a conclusion to their talks, a backlog of persons had accumulated.

Citing security concerns, President Preval’s government first ordered 38 Criminal Deportees to be held in Haiti’s National Penitentiary where they remained for a few months. The government later ordered the remaining backlog of 500+ Criminal Deportees, and subsequent Criminal Deportees arriving in Haiti, to be held in police station holding cells throughout Haiti for an indefinite period of time and later set up a Commission, based in the Ministry of Interior, to oversee who would be released and when. Note: Prisoners in police station holding cells do not receive food and must depend on family members to bring food for them daily. Many Criminal Deportees in Haiti do not have any families there. There is also no medical at police stations.

Also citing security concerns, when President Aristide returned to office in 2001 his government changed the procedure to direct all newly arriving Criminal Deportees to be held for an indefinite period of time at Haiti’s National Penitentiary and the Commission continued to be in force. Note: Haiti's national prison does provide a limited amount of food daily and has an infirmary.

Again citing security concerns, the Interim Haiti Government in place from early 2004 until May 2006, continued the practice of detaining Criminal Deportees in the National Penitentiary, but the US for the most part accommodated the Interim Haitian Government’s request to suspend Criminal Deportation to Haiti. Halfway through its administration, the Interim Haitian Government moved the jurisdiction over Criminal Deportees to its Secretary of State for Public Security, which is a sub-post to the Minister of Justice.

August 16, 2006, the Minister of Interior announces that the official Haitian government policy is to detain all Criminal Deportees in the National Penitentiary upon their arrival in Haiti.