Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: The General Secretariat of the Organization of the American States stated in 2022, The international community, international financial institutions, the multilateral system, and the international financial community of donor countries must make a decision: whether they want to industrialize Haiti sufficiently to ensure work for nine million Haitians, or whether it is economically more profitable to continue absorbing Haitian migrants and let host countries accommodate them as and how they can and in such economic conditions as they can offer. .
Rather than building upon the ongoing lucrative trade relations with a newly independent Republic of Haiti in 1804, the United States decided to impose a trade embargo on the nascent state in 1806 because Haiti’s independence ended chattel slavery in its land and perceived it as a threat because it became the world’s first Black republic. After its independence, Haiti was made to pay an indemnity to France, its former colonial power, beginning in 1825, for breaking away from slavery, which amounts to at least $21,000,000,000 today, setting the stage for Haiti’s dire impoverishment today.
Haiti’s independence from France in 1804 directly resulted in France selling the bulk of its possessions in mainland North America in what became the Louisiana Purchase, fueling the westward expansion of the young United States to the Pacific Ocean in what is today States such as Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Kansas, Montana, Missouri, and Nebraska. Despite a tortured relationship, Haiti has long been a reliable partner of the United States. For example, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Haiti was among the first nations to join the United States in World War II and contributed funds to the United States effort.
Haiti bears a strategic importance to the United States due to its location in the Western Hemisphere. Haitian Americans continue to make important contributions to the United States economy and have played a significant role in education, health care, literature, politics, art, and culture. The Bureau of the Census estimates that the Haitian-American population is 1.2 million, which many believe may be severely undercounted, as persons of Haitian descent have been coming to the United States since prior to the founding of the United States.
The Haitian American population plays a vital role in Haiti’s development efforts, leveraging their resources, expertise, and networks to support education, technology, sustainable development, resilience, and prosperity in the country and could do much more in partnership with the United States Government. According to the World Bank, the Haitian diaspora sent over $4,000,000,000 in remittances to Haiti in 2023, equaling more than one-fifth of the country’s gross domestic product with these remittances having a crucial role in Haiti’s economy, providing a steady source of income for families in Haiti, contributing to poverty reduction, amounting to more than the sum of yearly foreign assistance to the country.
Haiti has played a pivotal role in Afro-descendants’ struggle for American values such as freedom in America, the Caribbean, and African countries, including the Haitian American leaders such as W.E.B. DuBois, cofounder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who have contributed to the Civil Rights movement in the United States and across the world. Assisting Haiti with a well-processed development program leading to sustainable economic development that keeps Haitians at home is in the vital interest of the United States.
The United States should assist Haiti in establishing sustainable inclusive development to meet the needs of all of its people, instead of being drawn to the lure of debt-trap driven development promoted by the People’s Republic of China. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Haiti will need, at minimum, an estimate of $19,300,000,000 (in 2020/2021 dollars) to meet key development metrics including to— achieve 7 percent annual GDP growth; eliminate extreme poverty; double manufacturing growth; improve health and well-being; improve quality primary and secondary formal education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes; and protect environmental biodiversity.