U.S. Special Envoy To Haiti Steps Down Over Migrant Expulsions

Diplomat Daniel Foote called the U.S. decision to deport Haitian migrants "inhumane [and] counterproductive" and pointed to an unsafe climate there.

The Biden administration’s special envoy to Haiti has resigned, protesting "inhumane" large-scale expulsions of Haitian migrants to their homeland wracked by civil strife and natural disaster, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Daniel Foote was appointed to the position only in July, following the assassination of Haiti’s president. Even before the migrant expulsions from the small Texas border town of Del Rio, the career diplomat was known to be deeply frustrated with what he considered a lack of urgency in Washington and a glacial pace on efforts to improve conditions in Haiti.

Foote wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he was stepping down immediately “with deep disappointment and apologies to those seeking crucial changes.”