JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thousands of Haitian migrants are at risk of being deported. That's if the Biden Administration doesn't renew the temporary protected status designated to Haiti. The Caribbean island is being overrun by armed gangs.
Families are forced out of their homes. Some don't have a home because gangs torched them. To David Metellus, who is Haitian-American, what's happening in Haiti is personal. He still has family back on the island. Metellus told First Coast News he wants to bring his sisters and nephews to the US.
"I would love to go visit my family in the country," Metellus said. "I'm certainly nervous for my family."
Metellus is the Director of Policy and Politics for the Florida Immigrant Coalition. The organization is sounding the alarm on the TPS redesignation deadline. It expires February 3, 2023. Members of congress wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security to give Haiti an extension for temporary protected status. TPS allows migrants to live and work in the US.
"And the Secretary of Homeland Security [he] basically has to decide until December 5, whether the conditions meet the requirements for a safe return and pose a serious threat for any person who tries to return to Haiti," Metellus explained.
From the videos Doodle Cinotti has seen, it's not safe. Cinotti runs a non-profit organization called Team Haiti. Volunteers feed the hungry and build shelters there. To the Jacksonville Beach missionary, the videos sent to her showing what happening on the island is shocking.
A mayor in Haiti said more than a dozen people near the country's capital were killed. This while gangs fought for control.
"No one should be going to have to be deported back to Haiti and the situation that is in now," Cinotti said. "These gangs - they are not anything to play with."
The re designation would allow the immigration protection to Haitians who showed up to the US after July 29, 2021.