Members of Congress asking Biden to appoint new special envoy to Haiti

Almost a year after a top U.S. envoy to Haiti resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s Haiti policy, four Democratic lawmakers are asking President Joe Biden to name a replacement.

Florida Reps. Val Demings and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, along with Yvette D. Clarke of New York and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said they are disturbed by the “rampant lawlessness and appalling humanitarian conditions in Haiti,” and after keeping the role of special envoy to Haiti unfilled since last September, the president needs to make an appointment.

“The lack of this critical touchpoint in the administration has undoubtedly undermined the administration’s efforts to support the Haitian people and Haiti’s democratic institutions,” the letter, sent Monday evening to the White House, said.

The members of Congress note that a year after the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Haiti lacks a democratically elected government, suffers from gang violence and the illegal flow of weapons has increased.

“On August 6, 2022, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the worsening situation in Haiti, stating, ‘it is a complicated situation,’” they wrote. “While we know Haiti’s well-being is of great concern to your administration, we are also troubled by diminished diplomatic resources being committed to the country.”

Appointed as special envoy to Haiti soon after Moïse’s assassination, Ambassador Daniel Foote resigned last year, citing the administration’s deportation of Haitian migrants back to the Caribbean nation as the country still reeled from the killing of its president, and a deadly earthquake that followed five weeks later on Aug. 14.

In his resignation letter, Foote said the Biden administration’s policy was “deeply flawed” and its deportation decision “inhumane” and “counterproductive.”

“American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,” he wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Since his departure, Foote has remained a critic not just of his former bosses and colleagues in Washington, but of Haiti interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry and others in the international community, taking to Twitter to lash out at them.

“The mission of the Special Envoy is to engage with Haitian and international partners to facilitate long-term peace and stability and support efforts to hold free, fair, inclusive, and transparent presidential and legislative elections,” the Congress members’ letter stated. “Mr. President, it is with utmost urgency that we ask you to appoint a new Special Envoy to the Republic of Haiti to continue to ensure that U.S. foreign policy supports a Haitian-led transition to democracy.”

In addition to not having a special envoy, Haiti also doesn’t have a U.S. ambassador since its last one, Michele Sison, was promoted in October.

After Sison’s departure, the State Department deployed Kenneth Merten, a career diplomat and onetime deputy assistant secretary in the bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, to Port-au-Prince as chargé d’affaires. The State Department hoped that with his Haitian-Creole language skills and vast contacts in Haitian society, Merten could help the country’s political and civil society actors find common ground in a political agreement that would allow for elections.

Months after Merten’s departure, however, both sides remain at loggerheads after recent talks broke down between Henry and a civil society coalition known as the Montana group.

Last month, Eric Stromayer, who most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to the Togolese Republic, assumed the role as deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires.

The lack of an ambassador in Port-au-Prince, where the State Department has reduced its workforce, has been of concern to many Haiti observers, given the country’s escalating gang violence, rampant kidnappings and deepening political instability. Also concerning is the Biden’s administration’s ongoing decision to deport more than 24,000 Haitians seeking to come to the United States both by foot across the Mexican border and by sea.

“American policy towards Haiti must be rooted in fair treatment, justice and partnership,” the lawmakers wrote. “While we are glad that the administration has restarted the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, changes still need to be made to protect the health, safety, human rights, and dignity of Haitian families in Haiti and here at home.”