U.S. Human Rights Policy Toward Haiti: Hearing Before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives
- Coast Guard records show 18,095 Haitians were interdicted between September 30, 1991 and April 7, 1992, of whom 10,149 were returned to Port-au-Prince.
- INS records show that 4,301 of those interdicted were brought to the United States.
- The GAO found weaknesses in interview and administrative procedures, including errors in the INS computer database, that led to at least 54 Haitians apparently being mistakenly repatriated.
- The GAO found at least 50 Haitians whose claims were not found credible were mistakenly sent to the United States, and possibly about 100 were given reason to expect travel to the United States but were returned.
- Chairman Conyers argued that the administration's approach on Haiti had failed and that Haitians should receive temporary protective status.
The hearing was held on April 9, 1992 by the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Representative John Conyers Jr., and printed in 1993. Chairman Conyers opened by reporting preliminary results of an investigation by the General Accounting Office, which he had requested in February, into whether Haitians with well-founded fears of persecution were being protected. Witnesses included a State Department official for Caribbean affairs, the GAO's director for foreign economic and assistance issues, the INS Commissioner, Yale professor Harold Koh, the legal counsel of the Haitian Refugee Center and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.
The GAO statement reports Coast Guard interdiction counts since the September 30, 1991 coup, weaknesses in interview and administrative procedures that led to mistaken repatriations, and conditions at Guantanamo Bay. The record also includes written statements and material submitted for the record.
How to cite
United States Congress, 1992, U.S. Human Rights Policy Toward Haiti: Hearing Before the Legislation and National Security Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, accessed via HaitiDocs, https://www.haitidocs.org/doc/us-congress-1992-us-human-rights-policy-toward-haiti-hearing
- Rights holder
- United States Congress