PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – A programme that would allow Haitian migrants to remain in the United States while waiting on their green cards, has come to an end.
On Friday, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the end of the “Haitian Family Reunification Parole Programme” launched in 2016, under the Obama administration, which allowed thousands of Haitians who had already obtained an immigrant visa based on family reunification, to wait in the country with their family for their green card to be available.
The USCIS has says the decision is in line with the 2017 Decree 13767 on improvements to border security and immigration enforcement.
“Family reunification must be used on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. USCIS is committed to exercising this limited power in a manner that preserves the integrity of our immigration system and does not encourage foreigners to enter the United States illegally,” said Acting Director of USCIS, Ken Cuccinelli.
“Many of these individuals are eligible to apply to adjust status to lawful permanent resident (LPR) and have already done so, in which case this termination will not affect those individuals with LPR status,” said USCIS spokeswoman Ana Santiago.
She added that as of June 21, over eight thousand Haitians had received documents under this programme.
However, in response to the decision, head of the Family Action Network, Marleine Bastien said the stance taken by the United States is wrong.
“I don’t think now is the time for the Trump administration to be rolling back protections for Haitian families, especially when Haiti is facing probably one of its worst political crises in history,” she said.
