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U.S. Suspends Deportations Of Haitians After Hurricane Matthew

A brief reprieve.
Reuters
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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday said it has temporarily suspended deportations of Haitians after Hurricane Matthew ravaged the Caribbean nation last week, killing at least a thousand people and leaving 1.4 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

“We will have to deal with that situation, address it, be sympathetic to the plight of the people of Haiti as a result of the hurricane,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said at an event in Mexico City.

“But after that condition has been addressed, we intend to resume the policy change,” he said, without specifying a time frame.

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Nearly a week after the storm smashed into southwestern Haiti, some communities along the southern coast have yet to receive any assistance.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The policy change Johnson referred to took place last month when the United States announced that in response to a surge in Haitian immigration across the Mexican border, it would end special protections put in place after a 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti.

Thousands of Haitians are currently massed in Tijuana and other Mexican border towns, and Mexico says 300 more arrive in the country every day.

 

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Before You Go

Hurricane Matthew Devastates Haiti
(01 of24)
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Destroyed houses are seen after Hurricane Matthew hit Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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Trees are seen after being hit by Hurricane Matthew on the outskirts of Les Cayes, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Andres Martinez Casares / Reuters)
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Workers bury two bodies after Hurricane Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
(04 of24)
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Destroyed houses and boats are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
(05 of24)
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People try to rebuild their destroyed house after Hurricane Matthew passed Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
(06 of24)
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Destroyed houses are seen in a village after Hurricane Matthew passes Corail, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
(07 of24)
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People try to rebuild their destroyed houses after Hurricane Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
(08 of24)
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A motorcyclist rides past a destroyed church after Hurricane Matthew passed Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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People try to dry clothes in the sun at their destroyed houses after Hurricane Matthew passes Jeremie, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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Stanley stands in his destroyed house after the passing of Hurricane Matthew, in Les Cayes, in Southwest Haiti, on October 6, 2016. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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People walk down the street next to destroyed houses in Jeremie, Haiti, on Wednesday. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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Stephanie, 26, walks in the yard of her destroyed home after Hurricane Matthew, in Croix Marche-a-Terre, in Southwest oh Haiti, on October 6, 2016. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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Men clear a fallen tree from after Hurricane Matthew passed through Les Cayes, Haiti, October 6, 2016. (credit:Andres Martinez Casares / Reuters)
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A boy stands near a flooded street after Hurricane Matthew passes Cite-Soleil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 5, 2016. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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A girl cries, surrounded by relatives, at a partially destroyed school on Wednesday after the hurricane passed Jeremie, Haiti. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)
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A woman crosses over a water canal in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday. (credit:Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters)
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A man tries to cross the overflowing Rouyonne River in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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A man is carried across the La Digue river in Petit Goave, Haiti, on Wednesday. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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A man walks down the flooded street of a Port-au-Prince commune on Tuesday. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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People try to cross the overflowing La Rouyonne river south of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. (credit:HECTOR RETAMAL via Getty Images)
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People clear a house destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in Les Cayes, Haiti, on Wednesday. (credit:Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)
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A television is among the rubble of a destroyed house in Les Cayes, Haiti, on Wednesday. (credit:Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)
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A road between Guantanamo and Baracoa in Cuba is left covered in rocks and rubble Wednesday after Hurricane Matthew passed through the eastern tip of the country on Tuesday afternoon. (credit:YAMIL LAGE via Getty Images)
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A woman walks past damaged housing in the Carbonera community of Guantanamo, Cuba, on Wednesday. (credit:YAMIL LAGE via Getty Images)
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