By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A former U.S. Special Envoy to Haiti who criticized the Biden government as he resigned last week over deportations that resulted in hundreds of migrants being forced to flee to their homeland told U.S. legislators on Thursday that Washington needs to rethink how it approaches the Caribbean country.

Haiti isn’t going to be more stable if it has its deportations in the near future. “In fact, it will make it worse,” ex-envoy Daniel Foote said at a briefing to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. Democrats as well as Republicans have decried U.S. policies.

Foote, who is a career diplomat, was named in July to his post. Foote told the committee that while he served as an envoy, he wasn’t told about the deportations. These occurred after thousands, some of them long-term residents of Haiti, arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Foote explained, “I heard about it in the news”.

Haiti was hit by violence from gangs, an assassination of the president and a devastating earthquake in recent months.

Over 1,400 people were returned by the United States to Haiti via a Del Rio camp, Texas. They also took their families and moved many more of them for processing.

The Democratic chair of the committee, Representative Gregory Meeks promised that it would continue to focus its attention on this issue. He lamented the way Haitians were treated, and he pointed out photos of U.S. agents riding on horses following refugees wearing what appeared to be whips.

Meeks explained that the United States must make a significant shift in its policy towards Haiti. And I don’t just mean immigration. But in the manner we view Haiti in our foreign policy priorities within this hemisphere.