It would be foolish to blame any one factor for the roiling tragedy in Haiti, but America’s lawless immigration policy played a much bigger role than media reports suggest. By backing Ariel Henry, who resigned as prime minister this week, the Biden administration sacrificed Haitian politics at the altar of lenient border security.
Meddling in Haiti is hardly a new idea for Foggy Bottom. After our two-decade 20th-century occupation ended in 1934, the U.S. treated Haiti like other Caribbean countries during the Cold War, strategically controlling their politics to prevent Soviet influence from expanding within striking distance. Now, of course, to even the most cold-blooded realist, Haiti’s close proximity remains relevant.
This is what almost nobody admits about the current unrest. According to his own former special envoy to Haiti, President Biden’s “chief reason” for backing Ariel Henry was the new president’s “malleability and the fact that he agreed that he would take all the deportees that they wanted to send.” This was reported in September of 2022 by Todd Bensman in the New York Post, though Biden faced little scrutiny over the blockbuster revelation as Henry’s Haiti descended deeper and deeper into the depths of suffering.
Biden appointed Daniel Foote to the role of special envoy in July of 2021 after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, whom both Presidents Trump and Biden supported. (The attack itself was largely planned in Miami, and though the Drug Enforcement Agency says he was not acting on its behalf, one of
