President Joe Biden’s special envoy to Haiti has abruptly quit with a furious statement tearing into the Biden administration’s decision to deport scores of Haitian migrants at the southern U.S. border.
Career diplomat Daniel Foote was only announced as Biden’s envoy to Haiti at the end of July, but wrote in a damning statement that he can’t support the administration’s “inhumane” treatment of refugees. U.S. authorities have deported over 500 Haitians in the past week after refugees set up a makeshift camp under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
In a statement reported by PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor, Foote said he was quitting “effective immediately,” adding: “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.”
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The Biden administration has been condemned from all sides of the political spectrum for its handling of the surge of Haitian migrants at the border this week—in one shocking incident earlier this week, video showed Border Patrol agents pursuing fleeing migrants on horseback.
Foote went on: “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. The people of Haiti... cannot support the forced infusion of thousand of returned migrants lacking food, shelter, and money without additional, avoidable human tragedy.”
An unnamed State Department official confirmed to the Miami Herald that Foote had submitted his resignation, saying: “We thank him for his service to his country and to the people of Haiti.” A second official told the paper that Foote had “sought a broader mandate and oversight responsibilities, which we did not think was appropriate or prudent at the time.”
