"This land cannot die": U.S. involvement in the rebuilding Haiti.

• Author: Asare, Sophia

1. INTRODUCTION II. HISTORY OF U.S.-HAITI RELATIONS A. The Haitian Revolution and the Early Days of the Black Republic B. U.S. Occupation C. Duvalierism D. The First Democratically Elected President of Haiti, Father Jean-Bertrand Aristide E. Aristide's Restoration to Power and Second Removal From Office F. Political Unrest, Tropical Storms, and the State of U.S.-Haiti Relations Today III. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS A. Short-term Legislation B. Long-term Legislation IV. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION

   On January 12, 2010, Haiti suffered an earthquake that registered a catastrophic 7.0 on the Richter scale. (1) The earthquake and its dozens of aftershocks claimed tens of thousands of lives. (2) In the immediate aftermath, the United Nations estimated at least 30% of Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince, had been destroyed and nearly half the buildings in some neighborhoods had been leveled. (3) The earthquake is only the latest tragedy to hit Haiti, which has suffered through natural disasters, political strife, and other hardships for most of the last decade. (4)

   The initial global humanitarian response to the earthquake was tremendous. Almost immediately, the World Food Programme was on the ground, feeding approximately 8000 people a day. (5) Medical nonprofit Doctors Without Borders and teams from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Jordan, and Russia set up makeshift clinics. (6) The Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, has been treating those Haitian refugees with medical emergencies. (7)

   The United States emerged as the early leader in the recovery efforts. (8) The morning after the earthquake, President Barack Obama pledged support, noting that the tragedy

   reminded [us] of the common humanity that we all share. With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are neighbors of the Americas and here at home. So we have to be there for them in their hour of need ... I pledge to the people of Haiti that you will have a friend and partner in the United States of America today and going forward. (9) Just three days later, the White House sent a search and rescue team of more than 400 firefighters to help comb through the ruins for survivors. (10) Ten thousand U.S. troops were deployed to aid the relief effort by providing support with security and logistics, both on the ground and at sea. (11) In addition to committing $100 million in aid, the United States sent a Navy medical ship, helicopters, medical teams, food, and much-needed drinking water. (12) Former President Bill Clinton has been instrumental in his role as acting U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti. (13) He, along with former President George W. Bush and President Obama, has set up a national fund for earthquake victims. (14)

   The United States has also taken domestic measures to help Haiti. (15) Haitian advocates praised the Obama Administration for granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians who have continuously resided in the United States since January 12, 2010. (16) The push for TPS was an uphill battle that predated the quake's devastation: In 2008, Haiti was battered by four violent storms that claimed the lives of 800 people, and the country was no in condition to receive the 30,000 Haitians who had been issued deportation orders at the end of President Bush's second term in office. (17) Granting TPS will allow Haitian immigrants in the United States to continue to send remittances to Haiti; those remittances total nearly $1 billion each year and are crucial to the Haitian government's efforts to rebuild and recover. (18)

   Under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), the Attorney General is authorized to grant temporary protection from removal to aliens from a designated foreign state that has experienced severe natural disasters or persisting conflict. (19) Congress created TPS relief through the 1990 Immigration Act and intended it to provide safe haven for aliens who are within U.S. borders and cannot be returned to their country of origin because of unsafe conditions. (20)

   In order to receive TPS, nationals from designated states must be "continuously physically present in the United States since the effective date of the most recent designation of that state ..." (21) Aliens who are otherwise inadmissible for entry into the United States may still be eligible for TPS. (22) The Attorney General may waive certain grounds of inadmissibility under the Act "for humanitarian purposes, to assure family unity, or when it is otherwise in the public interest." (23)

   Aliens who are granted TPS are spared deportation and authorized to work for six to eighteen months. (24) Unlike asylum or refugee status, TPS does not result in a permanent status. (25) It lasts only for the duration of a crisis that is taking place in the alien's country of origin. (26) Once the crisis subsides and the Attorney General determines the alien's country of origin no longer warrants designation, the aliens are returned to their country. (27) However,

   [i]f the Attorney General does not determine ... that a foreign state (or part of such foreign state) no longer meets the conditions for designation ... the period of designation of the foreign state is extended for an additional period of 6 months (or, in the discretion of the Attorney General, a period of 12 or 18 months). (28) Granting Haitians TPS is consistent with U.S. policy because immigrants from other countries in similar situations have benefited from this form of immigration relief. (29) "Tens of thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans[,] and others whose countries have been hit by war, earthquakes and hurricanes have routinely been granted protected status in 18-month increments." (30)

   The aforementioned relief efforts have further solidified America's ties to the impoverished nation situated nearly 700 miles off the coast of Florida (31)--ties that were formed during the U.S. naval occupation of Haiti from 1915 to 1934 (32) and ties that have lasted through a U.S. embargo implemented for most of the 1990s and U.S. involvement in the coup-d'etat that overthrew former President Aristide in 2004. (33) The United States has made steps in the right direction, both with Temporary Protected Status and the swift deployment of resources on the ground, but the U.S. can still do more for its neighbor in need, namely by reforming its systematically cruel and unusual immigration policies towards Haitian migrants and fostering a meaningful partnership with the Haitian government for Haiti's recovery.

   First, this paper will evaluate the complex history of U.S.--Haiti relations. Second, this paper will recommend short- and long-term immigration policy reform and aid measures for sustainable development.

2. HISTORY OF U.S.-HAITI RELATIONS

   1. The Haitian Revolution and the Early Days of the Black Republic

      The United States has had a heavy hand in the state of Haitian domestic affairs, beginning with the Haitian Revolution and continuing to the present. (34) The United States sent troops and $750,000 in military aid to help France suppress the Revolution and defend white colonists' interests. (35)

      When Haiti successfully overthrew its oppressors in 1804, the freed slaves suddenly found themselves in a world where slavery largely endured. (36) Worried about its own slave-holding interests, the United States refused to recognize Haiti as a sovereign nation until 1862. (37) Despite its refusal to recognize Haiti's sovereignty, the United States was one of Haiti's leading trading partners for most of the 19th Century. (38)

   2. U.S. Occupation

      The U.S. share of the Haitian market doubled between 1870 and 1913; by the end of that period, the United States controlled about 60% of the Haitian economy. (39) In 1915, when persistent political instability threatened U.S. economic interests, the U.S. Marine Corps invaded Haiti. (40)

      The United States heralded the invasion as an altruistic deed, teaching the wayward island nation the ways of democracy and governmental efficiency, (41) but in reality,

      [the soldiers stationed in Haiti during] Woodrow Wilson's invasion ... murdered and destroyed, reinstituted virtual slavery, dismantled the constitutional system because the backward Haitians were unwilling to turn their country into a U.S. plantation, and established the National Guards that ran the country by violence and terror after the Marines finally left. (42) Despite U.S. assertions that progress had been made, nineteen years of U.S. occupation led to Haiti's most ruthless dictatorship: the Francois Duvalier regime. (43)

   3. Duvalierism

      During his thirteen-year presidency, Francois Duvalier ruled Haiti largely through fear, and he unleashed his street army, the Tonton Macoutes, to silence any opposition through torture, disappearances, and murder. (44) The U.S. government heavily financed Duvalier's reign of terror. (45) Washington sent Duvalier $40 million dollars during his first four years in office, and U.S. investors reaped the rewards. (46) In exchange for a cheap, exploitable labor force, the United States turned a blind eye to Duvalier's systematic human rights abuses. (47)

      Duvalier's son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, took over when the elder Duvalier passed away in 1971. (48) "Baby Doc," as he came to be called, (49) continued his father's use of violence to suppress political dissidence. (50) As the killings and disappearances escalated, the Haitian economy weakened. (51) "In just seven years, Haiti's external public debt increased seven fold: from $53 million in 1973 to $366 million in 1980. This represents almost twice the rate of growth of external indebtedness in Latin America, as a whole, over the same period of time." (52)

      The young dictator's short-lived reign was fraught with chaos and violence and led large numbers of Haitian refugees to flee to the United States. (53) The era brought about the first U.S. efforts to ebb the...