In recent weeks, a caravan of fifteen thousand migrants, most of them Haitians, arrived at Del Rio, Texas to seek asylum in the United States. While many of them had left Haiti years ago, their country of origin has seen great turmoil within the last few months. Former president Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home in early July. A month later, a devastating earthquake took the lives of over two thousand Haitians in the country’s greater south.

The images that have since surfaced of Haitian asylum seekers being mistreated by federal agents at the border and the decision to deport most of them back to Haiti have generated an international outcry. Regardless, more than thirty-five deportation flights have landed in Haiti since September 19, and many more are expected to leave in the coming weeks.

These deportations are enabled by Title 42, a policy used under the Trump presidency and continued by the Biden administration which effectively denies migrants of their legal right to seek asylum in the United States on the pretext of the public health risk posed by COVID-19. In light of these developments, the Biden administration has faced sharp criticism, including from now-former US envoy to Haiti Daniel Foote, who resigned in a poignant letter earlier this week.