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Respected U.S. diplomat resigns over 'inhumane' treatment of Haitians with scathing letter

Yamiche Alcindor/Twitter, U.S. Department of State

It takes a lot to push a career diplomat to quit their job. A diplomat's specialty, after all, is diplomacy—managing relationships between people and governments, usually with negotiation and compromise.

So when the U.S. special envoy to Haiti, whose "diplomatic experience and demonstrated interagency leadership have been honed directing several of the United States government's largest overseas programs in some of the world's most challenging, high-threat environments," decides to resign effective immediately, it means something.

Daniel Foote, who was appointed special envoy to Haiti in July of this year, explained his decision to quit in a strongly-worded letter to Secretary of State Blinken. His resignation comes in the wake of a wave of Haitian migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border and widespread reports of harsh treatment and deportations.

SCOOP: Special Envoy for Haiti, Amb Daniel Foote, a career member of foreign service, has RESIGNED. In his letter of resignation, he says he will not be associated with the U.S.'s "inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees." Letter attached.pic.twitter.com/KlW5GoTF3u
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche Alcindor) 1632397337

"I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life," he wrote. "Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own."

Foote went on to describe the dire conditions in Haiti:

"The people of Haiti, mired in poverty, hostage to the terror, kidnappings, robberies, and massacres of armed gang alliances, simply cannot support the forced infusion of thousands of returned migrants lacking food, shelter, and money without additional, avoidable human tragedy. The collapsed state is unable to provide security or basic services, and more refugees will fuel further desperation and crime. Surging migration to our borders will only grow as we add to Haiti's unacceptable misery."

What Haiti needs, Foote wrote, is "immediate assistance" to restore order so they can hold an election for their next president and parliament, as well as humanitarian assistance.

"But what our Haitian friends really want, and need," he wrote, "is the opportunity to chart their own course, without international puppeteering and favored candidates but with genuine support for that course. I do not believe that Haiti can enjoy stability until her citizens have the dignity of truly choosing their own leaders fairly and acceptably."

Finally, he chastised the U.S. and other nations for continuing to intervene in Haiti's politics, pointing out that such policies have never gone well and will only make problems worse:

"Last week, the U.S. and other embassies in Port-au-Prince issued another public statement of support for the unelected, de facto Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry as interim leader of Haiti, and have continued to tout his 'political agreement' over another broader, earlier accord shepherded by civil society. The hubris that makes us believe we should pick the winner—again—is impressive. This cycle of international political interventions in Haiti has consistently produced catastrophic results. More negative impacts to Haiti will have calamitous consequences not only in Haiti, but in the U.S. and our neighbors in the hemisphere."

Of course, this is one man's opinion, albeit a presumably informed one considering his position. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki answered questions about Foote's resignation in a press briefing, with some pushback from the administration:

Psaki: Daniel Foote, top U.S. Haiti envoy who resigned over migrant expulsions, "had ample opportunity to raise concerns about migration during his tenure. He never once did so...His views were put forward, they were valued, they were heard. Different policy decisions were made"pic.twitter.com/HCzBwCFs7R
— CBS News (@CBS News) 1632414526

The most recent upheaval in Haiti comes in the wake of its president being assassinated in July. But Haiti has a long and storied history that's worth learning about to see how the U.S. and other countries have directly contributed to the current economic and humanitarian crises there. (Find an excellent read for that here.) A series of devastating natural disasters in the past couple of decades has added to the nation's suffering as well.

Figuring out the best way to help floundering countries we're partially responsible for crippling and the best way to respond to humans fleeing such places is no simple challenge. But high profile resignations such as Foote's may at least draw people's attention to places like Haiti so that we can learn and understand what has led up to the crises we face now.

From Your Site Articles

'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'

Donald Trump doesn't see the value in immigrants from "shithole" countries — but he couldn't be more wrong.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that the president who opened his campaign with a rant about Mexicans being rapists, railed against the Muslim parents of a fallen soldier, claimed that an Indiana-born judge should recuse himself from a Trump case because he's "a Mexican," blamed "both sides" for a woman killed by a white supremacist, called for the execution of five men of color for a crime they didn't commit, and spent years speculating about whether or not the country's first black president was actually born in America would say something so overtly racist ... but that's exactly what he did on Thursday, Jan. 11.

"Why do we want all these people from shithole countries coming here?" Trump reportedly asked during a bipartisan meeting with senators on immigration. By "shithole countries," he apparently meant Haiti, El Salvador, and the entire continent of Africa. According to the report, he thinks the U.S. should seek out immigrants from countries like Norway (i.e. white countries).

While he's tried to distance himself from the comments, it's been confirmed by others in the room.

Trump met with members of Congress on Monday to discuss immigration. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

The truth is that it really cannot be overstated how important immigrants are to the U.S., including — and perhaps especially — those from the countries Trump slurred.

A November 2017 report by New American Economy, a non-partisan organization for comprehensive immigration reform, sheds light on some of the contributions made by people in these countries. Focusing on immigrants from Sub-Saharan African nations, the group found the following:

In 2015, African immigrants earned $55.1 billion, contributing $10.1 billion in federal taxes and $4.7 billion in state and local taxes.
73.4% of these immigrants are between the ages of 25 and 64. This is an age range many consider to be prime working years, in which people are most likely to have a net-positive effect on the economy. (In comparison, less than half of the U.S.-born population falls into this age bracket.)
There's a big demand for health care workers, and it's constantly growing. The report found that in 2015, there were more open positions in the health care industry than there were unemployed workers with relevant experience. Nearly 30% of African immigrants take up work in this field, providing some much-needed stability.
As of 2015, there were more than 90,000 African-born entrepreneurs in the U.S., creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
40% of African-born immigrants have at least a bachelor's degree, making them better-educated than the U.S. population as a whole.

New U.S. citizens attend a naturalization ceremony. Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

We have to ask ourselves who we are as a country — and who we want to be.

Looking to the Statue of Liberty, the very symbol of what so many of us were raised to believe about America, Trump's own message is contradicted.

"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

Lady Liberty holds aloft her torch — a beacon of hope to immigrants everywhere. Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images.

No, it doesn't say anything about "shithole" countries, but it does advocate for the "tired," the "poor," the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," "the wretched refuse of your teeming shore," and of course, "the homeless, tempest-tost."

When Trump says that other countries "aren't sending their best" or suggests that Haitians "all have AIDS," he's betraying who we strive to be as a country.

At this moment in time, there is, sadly, nothing more antithetical to so-called "American values" than our own president.

We spoke to a Haiti hospital after Hurricane Matthew. This is what they want you to know.

On Oct. 4, 2016, Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti's southern peninsula.

Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images.

And as you may or may not have seen in the news, it was pretty bad.

The death toll has risen to over 800 people and might grow as officials continue to reach the worst affected areas, according to The Weather Channel. Tens of thousands of houses have been damaged, and the Haitian president has called the situation "catastrophic."

Halfway down that peninsula is St. Boniface Hospital, which provides affordable medical care to local Haitians.

St. Boniface is a pretty important part of the local Haitian community, and it paints an important picture of what happens to poorer countries when large weather patterns hit.

St. Boniface, before the storm. Photo from St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, used with permission.

St. Boniface Hospital is located in the community of Fond-des-Blancs, and it has been a local fixture since 1983. It's where people can go if they need surgery or are having a baby. Fond-des-Blancs is pretty small, with a population of about 500 people, mostly farmers, so St. Boniface is often the only place to get medical care.

Fortunately, the eye of Hurricane Matthew missed Fond-des-Blancs and the hospital itself.

According to Liz Schwartz, the media and communications manager for the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, which runs the hospital, the eye of the storm crossed further west instead, out to the very tip of the peninsula.

That direct area suffered severe storm damage, and people are still having trouble getting there to find out what's going on and provide aid. Many parts of the west are currently only accessible by helicopter.

Sous Roche, one of the areas further west that got hit by the hurricane. Photo by Nicolas Garcia/AFP/Getty Images

But while Fond-des-Blancs was spared the most severe damage, it doesn't mean the people there emerged unscathed.

The community was still hit with severe rain and wind and there's been a lot of local damage to houses, roads, and bridges. The hospital itself is still up and running though, thanks to electrical generators.

The wind blew the roof off this school. Part of a church collapsed nearby and a lot of houses have been damaged too. Photo from St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, used with permission.

St. Boniface normally sees about 300-500 patients a day, says Schwartz, and they have seen some injuries, such as cuts, though there haven't actually been that many patients coming in.

While that might sound like great news, it actually illustrates one of the hospital's biggest worries.

The storm's left a lot of people pretty much stranded.

The rain and wind were so intense that Schwartz said staff saw floodwaters reach a 20-foot-tall bridge. Further away, the La Digue Bridge was overtaken, and it actually collapsed, cutting off the peninsula's only major thoroughfare to the mainland.

People at the site of La Digue. Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images.

The road conditions aren't much better than the bridges. Most of the local roads aren't paved; they're dirt or gravel. The rain's washed a lot of them out or littered them with debris.

"Pretty much what they're seeing is that they can't get anywhere," said Schwartz.

Photo from St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, used with permission.

When people are cut off, they can't get the medical attention they might need.

"There are communities that are completely cut off," said Schwartz. "We can't even get to them to see what condition they're in."

Both locals and hospital workers have been working to restore drivability, and they're expecting to see a lot more people once travel is restored. In the meantime, people have been sent out into the communities to learn more and provide help.

Workers repairing a washed-out road. Photo from St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, used with permission.

They're also trying to get in contact with their partner clinics in the severely-damaged west end of the peninsula.

Beyond the storm's immediate effect, storms can cause bigger problems in poor countries, like hunger and disease.

Most of the surrounding areas are pretty poor. "The majority of people live on less than $2 a day," said Schwartz.

And because many people in Fond-des-Blancs are subsistence farmers, they may have trouble getting food if their crops were damaged or washed away by the storm.

Hunger could turn into a major humanitarian crisis too, according to Schwartz. Diseases like cholera can also erupt after a natural disaster when people struggle to get access to clean water.

Getting an ambulance unstuck. Photo from St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, used with permission.

And with the peninsula cut off from the mainland, it's going to be really hard to get supplies in. That bridge — the La Digue — was really important. Trucks can't go over the washed-out dirt roads.

Extreme weather patterns can have a lasting impact on poor countries — and we might start seeing more of them.

While this specific incident is a new story, it's also one we might be hearing more and more in the future. But without adequate infrastructure, it's going to take Haiti a while to recover. It won't be easy, and it won't be quick. Everyone in Haiti, and around the world, will need to help.

There are lots of ways to help from America too. Primarily, you can help fund local, well-established charities and institutions like St. Boniface. Material donations are going to run into the same shipping problem as everything else, but funds can help local relief efforts buy food and supplies.

The United States has also deployed an aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. George Washington, as well as an amphibious transport dock, a hospital ship, and nine helicopters to Haiti to help.

When a natural disaster hits, it's often hard for communities to get back on their feet.

But if we could be more aware of how natural disasters affect developing nations — if we can help stories like about this local hospital get attention — we can actually save lives and help a country recover.

From Your Site Articles

Haiti has always charted bold new paths in its fight for independence.

From the slave rebellion that made it its own nation — the first nation formed by slaves — to its economic struggles and fight to rebuild, the Haitian identity has been unyielding in its quest for freedom and stability.

Image by Todd Huffman/Flickr.

But political freedom and economic stability have been hard to sustain.

Immediately after kicking its French colonizers to the curb, Haiti's independence was undermined. It was required to pay a large indemnity to France or risk not being recognized by many other countries as its own nation, an action that would leave the country in a constant state of debt to France. Haiti, in search of legitimacy and security, paid the fine.

Playing by the rules didn't protect Haiti from being a pawn in the West's political ambitions.

In 1915, 330 U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their arrival marked the beginning of a U.S. occupation that lasted almost 19 years. The U.S. took over the Haitian government, changed its laws, and fought a long and bloody battle in an attempt to get the Haitians to yield to its rule and protect its interests. As the United States Office of the Historian summarizes it:

"As a potential naval base for the United States, Haiti's stability concerned U.S. diplomatic and defense officials who feared that Haitian instability might result in foreign rule of Haiti. ... In 1914, the Wilson administration sent U.S. Marines into Haiti. They removed $500,000 from the Haitian National Bank in December of 1914 ... thus giving the United States control of the bank. ... President Wilson sent the U.S. Marines to Haiti to prevent anarchy. In actuality, the act protected U.S. assets in the area and prevented a possible German invasion."

The occupation ultimately failed, but the damage was already done. Again, Haiti had suffered the effects of another nation's ambitions and was left even more unstable and disparaged than before. Still, the people remained focused on their freedom.

In some regards, Haiti's history is not that different from many African nations, which have also had a long and sordid history with Western powers.

Image by Julien Harneis/Flickr.

From occupations and invasions to the division of the continent, African nations have suffered as a result of Western interests.

First, there was the "Scramble for Africa." Historian Saul David describes the mad dash for control of the African continent: "As late as the 1870s, only 10% of the continent was under direct European control ... by 1900, Europeans ruled more than 90% of the African continent."

Then, there was the partitioning of Africa during the Berlin Conference, which David explains "began the process of carving up Africa, paying no attention to local culture or ethnic groups, and leaving people from the same tribe on separate sides of European-imposed borders."

Both events were at the whim of Western powers that approached people in African countries as things to own. After centuries of suffering, those nations have taken action to unify and heal from the still-evident effects of colonial rule.

In an attempt to reclaim the African continent's resources, culture, and economic power, the African Union was founded in 2001.

The controversial and much maligned dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, led the creation of the African Union. Yes, that Gaddafi — the deposed Libyan leader who was killed on Oct. 20, 2011. While the good and the bad of his rule have been widely discussed and debated, he had a vision of a unified Africa, which would include "Caribbean islands with African populations," as stated in his 2009 speech in Tripoli.

Now, five years after his death, that vision could become a reality.

Image by Arsen.Shnurkov/Wikimedia Commons.

Haiti has expressed a bold desire to join the African Union, wading into uncharted waters in another attempt to take control.

After years of turmoil and destruction, Haiti sees its path to rebuilding — with the support and protection of empathetic African nations.

"To know where you're going, you need to know where you're from," the Haitian ambassador Jacques Junior Baril said in a recent interview with SABC Digital news. And the close cultural connection and mutual respect between the AU and Haiti is clearly evident. In 2010, former African Union chairman, Jean Ping said, "We have attachment and links to that country. The first black republic that carried high the flame of liberation and freedom for black people."

But the African Union isn't sold on the idea.

While there is potential for the formation of a "sixth region" of global delegates who will represent the African diaspora, Haiti may not be admitted into the African Union, instead remaining an observing member.

The Haitian ambassador stated, "It's not something we decided, it's a place that we earned after we fought for our independence 212 years ago. We paved the way for every other African nation to be free today, so historically speaking Haiti should have been in the AU already." While Haiti has made its intentions clear, ultimately, it's not for Haiti to decide.

Regardless of its status in the African Union, Haiti will continue to shatter boundaries, working toward the integrity and national sovereignty that they have long fought for.

Image via Chad Sparkes/Flickr.