When the humanitarian parole program selected countries like Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, many Haitians were excited about the opportunity to come to the United States. Even those who called themselves patriots, and I can tell you, deep down, even the Haitian nationalists who make it their whole personality to hate on the United States, most of them share the same biggest dream: to come to the United States.

When the program was announced, Haitians panicked with excitement. That was all the community was talking about. Many Haitians in the United States were excited to finally be able to bring their families there, because a lot of them had been trying to get their families approved for decades but never succeeded.

In the very first year, a big chunk of Haitian people did end up leaving the country.

THE RUSH FOR PASSPORTS

Those who did not have passports were rushing to get their passports done. They were selling things, asking people overseas to send them money. Immigration in Haiti was always filled with people trying to make passports. People were fighting, people were waiting all day. Some people would even sleep in front of the place for the night so that they could be first in line the next day. The crowds were so intense that people even got their feet and arms dislocated in those large lines, getting squeezed in corners. Immigration was charging them so much money to get those passports, triple, even quadruple the original price.

This is the amount of corruption that exists in Haiti.

THE CORRUPTION AND POLICE INVOLVEMENT

Videos from immigration reveal the extent of the corruption and desperation. The visual evidence shows the chaos: people being squeezed on stairs, women getting crushed against gates while screaming and crying, and people climbing over balcony railings in desperate attempts to advance through the overcrowded building. The scenes capture moments of disorder and urgency, with people physically struggling to move forward through the packed spaces.

In one video, a woman explains that she has been coming back and forth for two months and still never had a chance to get her passport done. She explained how they asked for 50,000 Gourdes to get it done, which at the time of writing this article is equivalent to nearly $400 USD. Even if you had already paid all fees and had all required documents, you still had to pay them that amount.

Many people claimed to have been waiting for weeks and months. One man said he had been coming back and forth for two months, and it was never possible to get his passport done after waiting in line. A woman claimed she had been coming for months and sometimes even slept outside just to get the opportunity. She said she once got close to the door to get in, and they spread tear gas, the gas police use in chaotic crowds. There was sometimes shooting.

The police officers were directly involved in this corruption. One man explained that the police beat him up and that they were making money from the people. He said he had gotten inside twice, and they made him get up and leave because he didn't have money to pay them. They replaced him with people who were willing to bribe them.

The corruption was so blatant that people who had been waiting since 2 AM would watch as those who just arrived around 12 PM were let ahead of them, as long as they had money to pay the bribes. The system was completely broken, with those who could pay jumping to the front of the line while those who couldn't afford the bribes waited indefinitely, sometimes for months.

But the corruption did not end there. Even after people finished getting their passports done and paid all the fees, including the overpriced fees that were not even the regular prices, immigration would still hold these passports hostage for ransom and ask them to pay other fees to release them. Some people ended up paying over $500 USD equivalent in total just to get a passport, including all the initial fees, bribes, and additional ransom payments.

LOCAL FRAUDS AND EXPLOITATION

Beyond the government corruption, local fraudsters also took advantage of the desperate situation. Haiti is very behind when it comes to basic technology. There are a lot of Haitians who do not even know how to set up an email account. The parole program required everyone to receive emails, creating another opportunity for exploitation.

People were helping others set up Gmail accounts, which realistically only take a few minutes and can even take less than 5 minutes. Yet they were charging poor people just to create an email account for them, taking advantage of their lack of technological knowledge and their desperation to participate in the program.

The exploitation did not stop there. They were charging people to check their emails for them if they received one, and also to check the application status, which only takes a few minutes to go on the website and type in the confirmation number to view the status. They charged for every single thing, turning basic technological tasks that anyone could learn in minutes into expensive services that exploited the desperate and technologically illiterate.

Some locals and even members of the diaspora took money from people claiming that they had found ways to sponsor them, such as through organizations and other methods. These people would never get any response, only gaslighting. The desperation was so intense that people sold their lands and valuables just to get into the programs, only to be scammed and left with nothing.

THE DIASPORA

When it comes to the diaspora, a lot of them tried to help and get their families here. But also, a lot of them have been very wicked with the program. People in Haiti who were so desperate and sometimes did not have families to sponsor them would pay friends and strangers in the United States to do that for them. These people would often take advantage of these poor, desperate people.

Can you imagine making someone in Haiti pay you money while you are living in the United States, even though this person's life is not even good? Some would make shady deals. When the person in Haiti did not have money, they would make deals with them, things like, "Okay, I can get you here, but you are coming here to help me pay bills," or "You are giving me that amount of percentage of your paychecks." They were essentially creating indentured servitude arrangements, exploiting the desperation of people who just wanted a chance at a better life.

When these people came here, they would mistreat them, get tired of them, kick them out, call the police on them, and make sure they were able to control them. There was a young lady who came here, and the person who got her here took her paychecks and only decided what to give her, which sometimes she said was nearly all the paycheck. When they got benefits like a little bit of food stamps, these people in the diaspora who got them here would take it.

Keep in mind that these people in the diaspora who behave like this, a large portion of them so it is not unusual, are the same group of people who go around saying how proud they are to be Haitians, how they are the biggest patriots, but in reality are destroying the country and other fellow Haitians.

Many of these humanitarian parole recipients regret coming to the United States, seeing how hard things get for them, not just by the country's inflation and economic challenges, but also by how they are mistreated by the same people who got them here in the first place. Even family members would turn on them, leaving them isolated and struggling in a foreign country after having sacrificed everything to get there.

Some of these people would come here and not be able to secure a job, and these people who sponsored them would be very angry and mistreat them. The sponsors who had expected to profit from their arrival or use them for their own benefit would become hostile when their expectations were not met, further adding to the suffering of people who had already given up everything for a chance at a better life.

CONCLUSION

The humanitarian parole program was meant to provide hope and opportunity for people in desperate situations. Instead, it became a system of exploitation at every level, from government corruption at immigration offices to local fraudsters charging for basic technological tasks, to diaspora members creating indentured servitude arrangements. People sold their lands, their valuables, and their futures, only to arrive in the United States and face mistreatment, exploitation, and regret.

The program exposed the deep corruption in Haiti and the predatory nature of many who claimed to help. It revealed how desperation can be weaponized, how basic human decency can be abandoned for profit, and how even those who claim to be patriots can be the very ones destroying their own people. The humanitarian parole program became a case study in how good intentions can be corrupted when systems lack proper oversight and when people are willing to exploit the most vulnerable among them.

REFERENCES

• Video showing people being squeezed on a stair at immigration
• Video showing women getting squeezed against a gate, screaming and crying
• Video showing chaotic scene with people climbing over balcony railings in overcrowded immigration
• Video showing chaos and fights at immigration, with testimonies about corruption
• Video documenting police corruption and bribery at immigration