News24com US special envoy for Haiti resigns amid deportations - report

A mother and child sleep under a tree on September 22, 2021 in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. U.S. immigration authorities have been deporting planeloads of migrants directly to Haiti, and others are reportedly being released into the United States to follow their asylum claims. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

The US special envoy for Haiti, Ambassador Daniel Foote, has resigned, a senior State Department official said on Thursday, amid mass deportations of Haitians who fled recent political turmoil and natural disasters at home.

The US government has continued to fly hundreds of people, including families, back to Haiti, with conditions deteriorating in migrant camps on both sides of the US-Mexico border.

"I will not be associated with the United States' inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life," Foote said in his resignation letter, first reported by PBS.

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Foote said US policy on Haiti remained deeply flawed and that his recommendations had been ignored and dismissed.

The Haitian state has collapsed and is not providing security or even basic services, he wrote. "Surging migration to our borders will only grow as we add to Haiti's unacceptable misery."

Haitians need the opportunity "to chart their own course, without international puppeteering and favoured candidates but with genuine support for that course."

The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, thanked Foote for his service, but said the ambassador had overstepped his remit.

"He's consistently sought a greater oversight, greater responsibility in a way that we did not think was appropriate or prudent at the time," the official said.

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