MIAMI – Amid rising gang violence in Haiti, the U.S. Department of State is vowing to charter even more flights of Americans stuck in the Caribbean country with some expected to land in Florida as early as Wednesday.
Another such group of Americans is already back on U.S. soil, comprised of more than 30 U.S. citizens who landed Sunday in Miami on a government-chartered flight as Haiti’s main airport in Port-au-Prince remained closed amid gang attacks, leaving many stranded. Any flights that can get in or out are reportedly using a smaller airport on the northern coast in Cap-Haïtien, according to the state department.
“It was hard. MFI said they were going to fly in the next 30 days, but fortunately they didn’t wait for 30 days. Now we are back here today, I’m very excited for that,” Haitian resident Annexe Souffrance said.
Florida Rep. Cory Mills, R-District 7, said Monday on social media that he organized the evacuation of 13 Americans out of Port-au-Prince.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered 250 law enforcement officers and soldiers to the Florida Keys last week ahead of what he calls the “potential of invasion.”
In an interview Tuesday with conservative radio host Dana Loesch, DeSantis suggested Haitians who land in the Keys may find themselves in Florida’s “transport program.” This program — funded with an initial $12 million in Florida’s 2022 budget and expanded in 2023, in part to specify the state can transport migrants located anywhere in the country — was first used in September 2022 to fly dozens of migrants, most of them Venezuelan, from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
“We do have our transport program also that’s going to be operational, so if Haitians land in the Florida keys, their next stop very well may be Martha’s Vineyard,” DeSantis said.
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