Biden administration officials Thursday defended the government’s immigration policies toward Haitian migrants, including the deportation and repatriation of individuals back to the volatile Caribbean nation despite its spiraling violence and deepening humanitarian crisis.
“We work with partners in the Caribbean to ensure the most rapid and humanitarian humane repatriation process possible, including funding international organization partners to provide reception and reintegration support,” Emily Mendrala, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs covering Cuba, Central America and regional migration, told a panel of human rights protectors.
“The United States continues to enforce its immigration laws,” she added. “We encourage people of all nationalities who hope to visit or reside in or unite with family or seek protection in the United States to pursue the growing number of legal pathways to do so.”
