More than 600 Haitians have reached the U.S. mainland in the last eight months after sailing across the treacherous Caribbean pass; many others have died trying to make the journey. This is, the Miami Herald reports, "the largest exodus of boat refugees since 2004." It is also what happens when a group of people wants to flee dire circumstances but lacks a safe and predictable immigration path.
Political and economic conditions in Haiti have long been terrible, but they worsened last year after a devastating earthquake and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Violence in Haiti, poor conditions in Latin American countries where other Haitians had settled, and additional factors compelled thousands of Haitians to journey to the United States. That mass migration came to a head in September, when around 15,000 Haitians gathered at the U.S.–Mexico border, some of them clashing with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents as they tried to reach American soil.
