American Notes Immigration

Responding to the needs of the more than 5,000 Haitians who have fled their country in recent weeks to seek asylum in the U.S., the military has begun constructing an emergency refugee camp at the American naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. By the end of last week a task force had set up some 135 tents to shelter the 4,000 Haitians languishing aboard U.S. Coast Guard and Navy vessels that had rescued them at sea.

But the decision to build the camp may actually make things worse: immigration officials suspect that hundreds more Haitians will take to the sea in hopes of reaching Guantanamo. A federal judge has temporarily barred U.S. authorities from returning the refugees to Haiti pending a hearing this week concerning the legality of such repatriation.

Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to resolve the Haiti crisis got nowhere. Repeating its demand for an end to a U.S.-backed economic embargo, the government that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide scheduled elections for Jan. 5 to replace him.