Reinstate Haiti Deportation Halt and Expand Haitian Family Reunification | Miami Herald

28.9.16

Reinstate Haiti Deportation Halt and Expand Haitian Family Reunification | Miami Herald: Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake led to bipartisan calls to create the HFRP to more quickly bring in beneficiaries on wait lists of up to 13 years whom DHS already had approved. We said that it would decrease desperation, save lives, expeditiously reunite families and speed recovery in Haiti at little or no cost to the U.S. taxpayer by generating a significant additional flow of remittances back home.

But eligibility was arbitrarily and inexplicably limited to petitioners whose beneficiaries were within two years of getting their visas anyway. Of about 100,000 on the approved wait list, DHS thought it would interview 5,000 persons per year; but as of June 30, 2016, although beneficiaries three years out are now eligible, fewer than 2,000 had been approved.