Yesterday, the U.S. through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 26 Haitians, the first since the devastating earthquake of 2010.
ICE justified the deportation as part of their policy of ‘removing aliens who pose a threat to public safety.’ All 26 deportees had previously been convicted of a crime and one individual was acquitted of a terror plot. The government did not explain why it chose to deport these individuals at this time when the country remains under siege from cholera and political instability.
Members of the Haitian-American community were displeased and are concerned the deportees are going to a country still in ruins. Others were more blunt, they are being sent to a “death trap” said Cheryl Little, director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.
Lyglenson Lemorin is the most high profile deportee amongst the group; he was acquitted in 2007 of being part of a group of terrorists planning to bomb Sears Tower in Chicago. Five others were convicted of the crime.
