The Black Immigration Network is pushing the Obama administration to implement a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program. “The time to legally reunite Haitian-Americans with their family members is now,” stated in their letter last week to president Obama.
More than four years have gone by now, since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed 250,000 people and left millions homeless in Haiti, and the Obama administration has not yet answered to the alarming cry of millions of Haitian-Americans and human rights’ advocates to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program.
The Department of Homeland Security has approved 110,000 visas including 16,000 for children yet, they remain on a waitlist for up to more than 12 years.
Due to the flaw of the immigration system, the institution of family in Haiti is broken like the earthquake broke the country. Parents are separated from their children, and husbands are separated from their wives.
Indeed, as early as February 2010, one month after the earthquake, the Obama administration has deported more than 250 Haitians including immigrants who suffered life-threatening disease.
An investigation by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found that the Obama administration has not followed its own policy of seeking alternatives to deportation when there are serious medical and humanitarian crises.
Total deportations have gone up over the past decade, with the Obama administration deporting 387,000 immigrants in the year beginning October 2009 — more than twice the number deported under George W. Bush at the beginning of his term in the year starting October 2001.
Last week, in the wake of the humanitarian crisis on the border of Texas, the president vowed to fix this broken immigration system, even by taking executive action.
The Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program can show Mr. Obama’s willingness to improve the immigration system, and the condition of the Haitian immigrants particularly.
In fact, “Reuniting Haitian-American families does not require legislation.  President Obama, simply needs to instruct Jeh Johnson of the DHS to create a program to expedite their visas,” said the Black Immigration Network.