The Trump administration designated on Friday a group of Haitan gangs as terrorists as the groups continue gaining territory and control in the besieged country. However, critics of the measure have warned about the decision being used as an excuse to increase deportations of Haitians living in the U.S.
Concretely, Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled the Viv Ansanm coalition and the Gran Grif gang as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists. They join eight other Latin American groups designated as terrorist organizations in February, including Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and several Mexican cartels.
"Under the leadership of Secretary Rubio we are holding accountable vicious groups which have undermined Haiti and its people. It's in America's national security interest to hold the vicious gangs accountable," a State Department official told the Miami Herald after the designation.
The designation would allow U.S. authorities to send alleged gang members to El Salvador's infamous prisons, as the Trump administration is already doing with alleged Tren de Aragua members. It also imposes criminal and financial consequences for anyone deemed as providing "material support" or "resources" to the groups, including deportation and bans to enter the U.S.
Once the announcement was reported to be in the works, a regional analyst warned that the "goal of the designation is less about a security strategy for Haiti and more about creating a justification to deport Haitians to El Salvador." James Bosworth, author of the Latin America Risk Report newsletter added that the "immediate policy may be more focused on the deportation agenda than security, but it opens the door for a more aggressive security agenda in the future."
The designation comes shortly after Dorothy Camille Shea, interim chargé d'affaires at the U.S. mission at the UN, signaled the administration could be close to cutting aid to the country as it teeters on the brink of collapse.
"America cannot continue shouldering such a significant burden," she said. Shea then requested other countries to increase their support for the Caribbean country, going through a deep crisis that has no perspective of improving.
The Miami Herald also reported on Thursday that a nearly a year after the arrival of 200 Kenyan police officers tasked with helping local forces fend off gangs, the Multinational Security Support mission is in danger of falling apart. The mission faces critical shortages of funds and forces, as most countries that initially promised to deploy officers either shrunk the numbers, pulled them out or didn't send them in the first place.
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