The situation in Haiti is so bad that the US embassy is being evacuated.

 

Haitian police officers. BBC/Reuters. 

The US Embassy in Haiti is evacuating non-essential staff as the situation falls further into chaos. BBC. The Capitol of Port-au-Prince has mostly fallen to gangs with ports being shut down and prisoners released. The gangs want the Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, to be removed but it is unclear what else they want. Henry had left for Africa to try and secure foreign police to fight back against the gangs but was unable to return after the gangs shut down the port. He was also unable to enter the Dominican Republic, which shares the island with Haiti, due to the country refusing him. Henry is unpopular and has been in power since the previous president Jovenel Moise, was assassinated. The head of the gangs, Jimmy "Barbecue" Chérizier, threatened civil war and even genocide if Henry does not step down. 

My Comment:

The BBC article is downplaying how bad things are in Haiti, probably out of embarrassment. During the Trump presidency, Trump famously said that we were taking immigrants from "shithole" countries like Haiti, so it must be hard for the BBC to admit that Haiti is indeed falling into chaos. 

But as bad as things are in the BBC article, things are even worse in reality. I've heard reports of corpses being left on the streets to be eaten by dogs. The morgue workers are so afraid of the gangs that they won't even pick up the corpses killed by the gangs. And there are even credible reports of cannibalism, done as an intimidation tactic from the gangs. 

Things are going to get much worse. Haiti is dependent on foreign aid to survive and now the aid organizations are pulling out. And even if they still want to help, with the ports and airports closed there is no way to do so. If even the Prime Minster can't get into the country, what hope do aid workers have? And even if they could get in they would be at extreme risk from the gangs, who would probably steal their aid anyways. 

I don't think things would be better if Ariel Henry were to step down. I don't think he's a legitimate leader, given the way he came into power after the assassination of the previous President. The fact that no elections have happened since the death of Moise means that he legitimately shouldn't be in power. 

But even if Henry isn't legitimate, that does not excuse the actions of the Haitian gangs. It's clear they want Henry out of the way so they can take over the country and run it as a dictatorship. And they are being as horrible as they can to pull it off. Most of the people affected by this aren't guilty of being anything other than being defenseless civilians and I think the threats of genocide are legitimate. 

With that being said, I don't think we should be accepting people from Haiti as refugees. I am afraid that they could bring the violence we are seeing in Haiti here in America. Given that Haiti has never had a functioning government and the level of violence we are seeing in the country now, it would be nuts to bring these people here. But given who is in charge of the United States right now I would not be surprised if we see a bunch of Haitian illegals crossing over our unsecured southern border...