Haiti finds itself on the list of countries facing a Trump administration travel ban for the second time in two terms. The official reasons are that Haitians often overstay their visas and that there is a risk of the “establishment of criminal networks, and other national security threats.” But Haitian immigrants have considerably lower incarceration rates than the US native-born, which suggests the real motivation might lie elsewhere. In 2017, it was reported that the President’s desire to stop the entry of Haitians was because “they all have AIDS.” To the extent that is still the administration’s core concern, there is good news to report and policy lessons to be learned: there has been considerable progress against the disease in Haiti— and that is thanks in large part to US support.
