Haitians in Mexico see bleak choices as they seek protection

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Adrián is trying to settle in to his third new city since 2016, when his wife was raped and mother was killed in Haiti. “Why do they send us back to Haiti?” he said outside a cheap Mexican hotel blocks from the border with El Paso, Texas, where he was living with his wife and about 20 other Haitians last month. Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced last month an 18-month extension of protections for Haitians living in the United States, citing “serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.” The reprieve benefits an estimated 100,000 people who came after a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti and are eligible for Temporary Protected Status, which gives a temporary haven to people fleeing countries struggling with civil strife or natural disasters. Some people who have been sent back to Haiti simply save for another attempt to cross into the U.S. “I’ve been back in Haiti over nine months now. He said his training as a mechanic hasn’t gotten him work in Haiti, though he plied his trade from Chile to Guatemala on his journey to the U.S. Jean-Piere, another Haitian migrant who was trained as a mechanical engineer and spoke on condition that his last name not be published for safety reasons, spent two years in Tijuana.