CIUDAD ACUNA: The US envoy to Haiti dramatically resigned on Thursday in a letter that excoriated Washington for deporting hundreds of migrants to the crisis-engulfed Caribbean nation from a border camp in recent days.
The resignation was confirmed by a senior official at the U.S. State Department.
“I will not be associated with the United States’ inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants,” Daniel Foote said in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that circulated publicly on Thursday.
Foote, a career diplomat named in July as special envoy to Haiti, said conditions in the country were so bad that U.S. officials were confined to secure compounds. He said the “collapsed state” was unable to support the infusion of returning migrants.
His resignation follows growing pressure on the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden from the United Nations and fellow Democrats over the treatment of Haitians in a migrant camp in Texas near the Mexican border.
As many as 14,000 people gathered in the camp last week, with the population now reduced to less than half by expulsion flights and detentions. Others have left the dusty riverbank for Mexico to avoid being sent home. Images of U.S. border guards on horseback using long reins to whip at Black asylum seekers at the weekend caused outrage within the White House and from rights groups.
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