House Democrats Oppose Terrorism Label for Haitian Gangs
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, urged the Trump administration April 30 to reconsider its decision to designate Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), saying the move could impede the delivery of humanitarian aid to the impoverished country.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“An FTO designation imposes broad legal and financial sanctions that deter non-governmental organizations and international agencies from operating due to fear of legal exposure -- even when their work is purely humanitarian in nature,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Humanitarian aid serves as an essential bulwark against the gangs and their control of local economic activity in Haiti, and an FTO designation risks creating a chilling effect on the delivery of this much needed assistance.”
The lawmakers said a better approach would be to sanction individuals who facilitate and benefit from gang-fueled instability in Haiti. They noted that the Treasury Department sanctioned former Haitian President Michel Martelly in August for helping drug traffickers move their products to the U.S. (see 2408200011).
The lawmakers said that if the administration seeks more authorities to sanction enablers of Haiti’s turmoil, it could support a bill they recently reintroduced to sanction Haitian political and economic elites involved in criminal activity (see 2504040038). “This legislation would enable a concerted effort against the gangs while keeping intact humanitarian assistance to Haitians enduring gang violence and instability,” they wrote. The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved the bill April 9 (see 2504090052).
The State Department has not publicly announced the FTO designations but has notified Congress of its decision. A department spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
The three-month-old administration has been a frequent user of the FTO label so far, announcing the designation for eight Latin America-based criminal groups and the Yemen-based Houthis (see 2502190011) and 2503040008).