A migrant crisis at the United States border has the nation’s eyes turned toward harsh images of border patrol agents on horseback chasing down Haitian refugees seeking entrance to the country.
While Pittsburgh’s Haitian community is small, it, too, has taken notice — and asks that migrants be given a fair chance to enter the country.
“I’ve been following the news quite closely with dismay, and it’s a story explaining the quest for a better life,” said Dr. Leon Pamphile, who was born in Haiti and has lived in Pittsburgh for over 50 years.
“America is a country of immigrants, and we have immigrants from all over the world that are here — and Haitians are doing the same thing, trying to find a better life,” Dr. Pamphile added. “It is again, disappointing to see the kind of welcome they received at the border.”
Dr. Pamphile is the executive director of FLM Haiti, a nonprofit based in Pittsburgh that provides education, literacy training, health care, and preparation in trade skills.
“It’s a small community now,” Dr. Pamphile said of Pittsburgh. “Back then in the 70s there was hardly anybody, any Haitians here.”
Throughout last week, a mostly Haitian group of close to 15,000 arrived at the border in Del Rio, Texas, and were placed in a makeshift camp by U.S. authorities. While crossing the Rio Grande, U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback were photographed attempting to grab individual migrants and push them back toward Mexico. In one video, an agent yells an obscenity at a child who jumps out of a horse’s path.
The turmoil saw U.S. authorities close off the main crossing point to Mexico. According to Haitian migrants in a report from the L.A. Times, this worsened food shortages at the camp. In the report, migrants told stories of dangerous river crossings, backtracking to Mexico to purchase food and bring it across to the camp.
“As all immigrants, we see ourselves reflected in the story as a describing of the quest for a better life,” Dr. Pamphile said. “That is on the table right now. People are fleeing political violence and poverty and are determined to find a better life for themselves and for their children.”
“America is a country that always welcomed immigrants — as the Statue of Liberty in New York stands for,” he added. “I believe it is the right course of action to welcome those who are desperate, those who are unable to help themselves.”
A Wednesday afternoon report has signaled that many Haitians may be a step closer to their dream.
According to ABC News, U.S. officials said many migrants are being released from the camp into the United States, undercutting President Joe Biden’s recent stance on expulsion. One official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, put the number of freed Haitians in the thousands, and said migrants this week were being bussed to El Paso and Laredo, Texas, for processing at Border Patrol locations.
Latest figures estimate the number of migrants remaining at the camp to be nearly 10,000.
For some Haitians, however, the long journey has come to an end. On Sunday, reports came in that the Department of Homeland Security has begun flying migrants back from the U.S. border to Haiti, with 523 individuals deported so far. According to the DHS, these flights will continue. Meanwhile, Mexico has begun sending migrants from its side of the border toward its neighbor to the south, Guatemala.
According to Dr. Pamphile, the conditions those migrants face back home in Haiti are rife with violence.
“Neighborhoods are completely controlled by gangs, so its a situation of desperation for many people,” he said. “They are trying to escape the hard-boiled conditions of violence and unemployment, political instability in Haiti.”
Jean Marc de Matteis has witnessed the scene on the ground in Haiti’s capital, Port Au Prince, where planes from the U.S. border have been returning expelled migrants since Sunday. Mr. de Matteis is the CEO of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, which serves 350,000 people in Haiti and was founded by Dr. Larry Mellon. The hospital’s development office is located in Pittsburgh.
“Desperate conditions compel people to make desperate choices, and certainly risking their lives and leaving Haiti for these really long and dangerous paths to go to another country are born out of desperation,” Mr. de Matteis said in a phone interview.
Mr. de Matteis said he was at the Port Au Prince airport when one plane carrying migrants from the U.S. border arrived. He said migrants were taken by bus from the airplane and processed in a specially designated tent.
“What kind of support they’re getting, I don’t know,” Mr. de Matteis continued. “A lot of these people haven’t been in Haiti for the last five or 10 years in some cases, so what support they’re getting upon arrival here once they are processed, I have no idea.”
“We have a situation here, in addition to the earthquake, in addition to the political crisis, and the security crisis, we have a public health crisis where less than one percent of the population has been vaccinated for COVID,” he said. “So those are some of the underlying issues that need to be addressed, or that should be addressed, that make the situation a little less desperate and maybe make people make different choices.”
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, 57,341 vaccine doses have been administered in the nation of 11.26 million as of September 17.
Mr. de Matteis also had this to say:
“However complex the issue of migration is, certainly I believe everyone should be treated with dignity and respect — and that should be universal.”
Jesse Bunch: jbunch@post-gazette.com
First Published: September 22, 2021, 7:34 p.m.
