Halt Haitian deportations
The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Monday, April 18:
The resumption of deportations to Haiti revives a senseless and inhumane policy by the Department of Homeland Security. The last time this occurred, in late January, at least one of the deportees died within days, prompting a nearly three-month hiatus in deportations that has now been lifted for no good reason.
Conditions in Haiti remain appalling as the nation struggles to overcome a severe humanitarian crisis. An estimated 680,000 people are still stuck in camps for the displaced 15 months after the powerful earthquake that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince in January of 2010. A cholera epidemic has affected 234,000 people and caused a reported 4,500 deaths. A recent article in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that, “absent new interventions,” the epidemic could sicken some 800,000 people and kill 11,000.