A recent change to the US immigration system has fueled another crisis in the Caribbean as Haitians rush to leave the crime-ridden nation and American parents watch with their hands tied as their legally adopted children cannot join them in the States. United
Dozens of adopted children have been unable to obtain Haitian passports – the latest stage in the adoption process – as immigration offices in Haiti have been overrun since early January after the Biden administration said it would accept up to 30,000 migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela per month.
Passport applications have skyrocketed with reports showing requests rising from an average of 1,500 a day to 5,000, the Miami Herald first reported earlier this week.
Haitians wait outside an immigration office to apply for a passport in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 10, 2023. (RICHARD PIERRIN/AFP via Getty Images)
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But US policy has done more than encroach on Haitian immigration facilities, it has effectively prevented children legally adopted by US parents from obtaining the necessary paperwork to board the two-hour flight from Port-au-Prince in Miami.
“I just want to be clear,” one adoptive parent told Fox News Digital, “My wife and I really support this idea. I think they should give people a safe and legal way to come to the United States.”
“But the problem is that this program also requires applicants to have a Haitian passport,” he continued. “It’s totally overwhelmed by the passport office.”
Bryan Hanlon and his wife Julie, who live in the Washington, DC area, became the legal parents of Peterson, 5, and Gina, 6, in August 2022 after starting their adoption process in 2018. The couple she was matched with brother-sister pair in May 2021 when they were 3 and 4 years old respectively.
Photo of two adopted Haitian children, 5-year-old Peterson and 6-year-old Gina, waiting for passports to enter the United States (Bryan Hanlon of his adopted Haitian children)
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Adoptions from Haiti have been notoriously difficult for years, Hanlon explained, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent assassination of then-President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 made it even more difficult.
Haiti has gradually fallen into a state of chaos following a series of devastating earthquakes and hurricanes since 2010, and the economic situation has plummeted to the point where Haiti is now the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and gangs have taken over.
Adopted children must make an appointment to obtain passports, which in theory should give them priority over other Haitians lining up at immigration offices.
But the situation has actually gotten so dire that people have started scaling the sides of the immigration offices, climbing ladders to cut ahead once inside, and causing such chaos that applicants with pre-scheduled appointments are unable to walk into offices or have had their appointments canceled without a rescheduled date.
Haiti Immigration Director Jean Osselin Lambert told the Miami Herald this week that the crowds of people camped outside the offices have become so immense that even immigration employees are barred from entering their offices.
On January 22, 2010, Haitians attempt to enter the Passport and Immigration Center in Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of Haitians queue up every day to try to get a passport so they can enter the United States following a change in immigration policy under the Biden administration. (LUIS ACOSTA/AFP via Getty Image)
The boisterous crowds at the Central Bureau of Immigration and Emigration in Port-au-Prince on Friday prompted security officials to deploy tear gas inside the building in a bid to gain control of the situation. The building was then evacuated according to local reports.
American parents and the US National Adoption Council are calling on the Biden administration to intervene.
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A letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, obtained by Fox News Digital, urged the department to allow adopted children into the United States without passports, a move the department allowed just three months ago.
“There is simply no rational basis for the State Department to refuse to exercise its legal authority to provide a safe and legal alternative when the Haitian Passport Office is functionally closed to these children,” the letter said.
A crisis provision under Title 22 allowed the State Department to allow Haitian children adopted without passports into the United States between mid-October and mid-November.
The waiver was allowed in coordination with the Haitian government after the nation was effectively shut down following a months-long fuel blockade after gangs surrounded a major fuel terminal from September to November.
A parent tries to hand over his daughter to pass her through the gate of the Haiti Immigration Office as they wait their turn to apply for a passport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
In the emails reviewed by Fox News Digital, the Hanlons also repeatedly wrote to the State Department underlining not only the dangerous situation of the immigration offices but also the total impossibility of making an appointment or obtaining a passport.
But the State Department says the offices remain “functional” and therefore have refused to enforce the crisis waiver.
“They always say the same thing,” Hanlon said. “We’re just asking the State Department to recognize that if Haiti won’t give us a passport appointment, we can’t get a passport. We’re in the same situation families are in in the fall, in that we can’t get a passport to bring our children at home.
“We feel totally abandoned by our government,” he added. “They’ve created this situation and it doesn’t look like they’re lifting a finger to do anything about it.”
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A State Department spokesman said he understood that “it is currently difficult for adoptive parents to obtain a Haitian passport” and that he remained “committed to helping adoptive parents”.
“We will continue to engage with the Haitian government on this issue and communicate updates with families, US government agencies, US accrediting entities, adoption service providers, state authorities, and the broader adoption community,” the spokesperson added.
The department did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about whether Blinken will respond to the letter or whether the department will again waive passport requirements during the ongoing crisis.
