PHOTO: U.S. Deportees to Haiti, Jailed Without Cause, Face Severe Health Risks

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

A flight carrying deportees from a Louisiana detention center arrives at Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince on Sep. 13.

Deportees are unshackled by immigration agents before being transferred to the Haitian judicial police.

New Jersey deportee Valloton Vallon sits on a bus at the airport while he awaits fingerprinting shortly after arriving in Haiti on Aug. 9.

Longtime Fort Myers, FL resident Franco Coby looks out of the cell at the Petionville jail where he was held for seven days without charge. Coby was deported after serving a sentence for cocaine possession with intent to sell.

Samuel Lizius, a deportee who arrived in January from Fort Worth, Texas, reads a copy of his deportation order outside his Port-au-Prince home.

Celie Merissier, 52, peeks out the doorway of her Key West, Fla. home with the fiancee and children of her son Wilfrantz Casseus, who was deported to Hiati in August after being convicted of selling cocaine.

Story and Photography by Jacob Kushner for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and Type Investigations.

ICE Data Shows One in Two Haitians Detained Have Not Been Convicted of Crimes

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Despite the Obama administration’s policy to prioritize dangerous criminals for post-earthquake deportations to Haiti, data obtained by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting shows that nearly one in two Haitians detained by the U.S. government have not been convicted of crimes in the United States.

Impact Update: Days after my investigation revealed the Obama administration was illegally deporting immigrants to Haiti where they would be imprisoned under life-threatening conditions, the White House ordered a comprehensive review of 300,000 such deportation cases.

Read the full post as it appeared at FCIR. This is a follow-up story to an original, November 2011 investigation into U.S. deportations to Haiti.

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U.S. Deportees to Haiti, Jailed Without Cause, Face Severe Health Risks

California Watch, Center for Public Integrity, Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Huffington Post, Miami Herald, The Nation & The Nation Institute Investigative Fund, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The United States has deported more than 250 Haitians since January knowing that one in two will be jailed without charges in facilities so filthy they pose life-threatening health risks.

An investigation by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting found that the Obama administration has not followed its own policy of seeking alternatives to deportation when there are serious medical and humanitarian concerns.

Click HERE to read the full investigation at FCIR. Versions of this story were published by California Watch, the Center for Public Integrity, Huffington Post, Miami Herald, the Nation Institue Investigative Fund, and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, among other outlets.

Impact update: Days after my investigation revealed the Obama administration was illegally deporting immigrants to Haiti where they would be imprisoned under life-threatening conditions, the White House ordered a comprehensive review of 300,000 such deportation cases.

Continue reading →

VIDEO: U.S. Deportees to Haiti, Jailed Without Cause, Face Severe Health Risks

Florida Center for Investigative Reporting

The United States has deported more than 250 Haitians since January knowing that one in two will be jailed without charges in facilities so filthy they pose life-threatening health risks.

Click HERE to watch a video interview with Texas deportee Samuel Lizius, published by FCIR.

Click HERE to watch a video interview with Illinois deportee Samuel Durand, published by WCIJ.

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