Biden officials want to 'send an armed multinational force' into Haiti to stop months of violence

The Biden administration wants to send in a multinational force to Haiti to quell the months of gang-related violence and chaos ravaging the island nation, but other nations are hesitant to get on board. 

Worried that the humanitarian crisis will further spur migration to the U.S.-Mexico border, Biden officials have implored other nations to form a multinational force to send into Haiti, where many regions are run by gangs and gunfire goes off all hours of the day. The unrest spiraled after Haiti's president was assassinated in July - 96,000 have fled Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince due to gang violence. 

But, the U.S. does not want its own troops included in the force, officials told the New York Times. American military leaders have emphasized they do not want to be dragged into a foreign mission that would require significant time and resources. 

Haiti's government took the extreme step of requesting the armed foreign intervention last month, despite harboring deep resentment at past foreign interventions. 

People displaced by gang war violence in Cite Soleil rest on the streets of Delmas neighborhood after leaving Hugo Chaves square in Port-au-Prince, Haiti November 19

Haitians wait to cross the border between Dominican Republic and Haiti in Dajabon, Dominican Republic

When United Nation peacekeepers last took to the country in 2010, they brought on an outbreak of cholera that killed 10,000 Haitians. Respect for the UN in Haiti was 'forever destroyed,' according to Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary general at the time. 

And the U.S. argues that Haiti is still scarred by America's long history of messy interventions in its domestic affairs. Following the assassination of the Haitian president in 1915, the US occupied Haiti for two decades. 

The U.S. has backed a resolution for a 'rapid action force' but that has stalled in the UN Security Council. 

The number of Haitian migrants intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard in fiscal year 2022 is four times what it was the previous year - more than 7,000 in 2022 compared to 1,527 in 2021. 

At sea, more than 7,000 Haitians were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard from October 2021 through September of this year, compared with 1,527 during the previous 12 months. 

The United Nations for the first time has designated hunger levels in the nation to be 'catastrophic' and cholera has reappeared for the first time in years as gangs prevent aid workers from providing care in poor areas. Kidnappings averaged four per day in the nation of 11 million in October, according to the UN.

A baby suffering from malnutrition is weighed at the Gheskio Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Nov. 21

Rickson Beaubrun, who was injured by a stray bullet while sleeping in his bed in Cite Soleil, holds his sister's hand as he recovers at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in the Tabarre neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022

A mother carries her son run past a burning barricade during a protest against the government in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Nov. 18, 2022.

Biden officials say a force of about 2,500 military and police officers could be enough to secure the country's ports and ensure the free flow of goods. But no nation has yet been persuaded to cough up the manpower - both Canada and Brazil rebuffed the call. 

The risk of sending in troops is high, and the rewards uncertain. Winning battles against gangs does not wipe out their presence, history shows, due to the deep ties between gangs, corrupt police and the nation's political and economic elite. 

Last week a coalition of more than 400 advocacy groups called on the Biden administration to renew Haiti's Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation to protect all Haitians in the U.S. from deportation. 

Police officers ride with detained Haitian nationals to a migration clearance centre to verify their papers as the government is stepping up deportations, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic November 15, 2022

The Department of Homeland Security re-designated Haiti's TPS in March 2021 for 18 months, meaning it will expire in February 2023. Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas has until Dec. 5 to decide if he will renew the TPS for Haiti. 

In 2021 the Biden administration carried out an aggressive deportation campaign of Haitians, sending back 25,000 who arrived at the southern border under Title 42. The year 2022 was kinder to Haitians arriving at the US border, with just 0.5 percent being turned away under Title 42.