Top Democrats in Congress met with Haiti’s newly installed Prime Minister Garry Conille on Tuesday and pledged to press for additional U.S. aid days after a U.S.-backed international law enforcement mission arrived on the Caribbean island to restore stability to a country that has been under siege by criminal gangs for months.
The Biden administration plans to release $100 million for the mission, of which the United States is the largest financial backer, and will do so despite Republican opposition. But Conille told Democrats on Tuesday that more money will be needed, and soon.
“This is a critical moment,” Conille said in an interview Tuesday afternoon after meetings with lawmakers and officials from international financial institutions, where he expressed gratitude for the support that has already been pledged and stressed the dire need for continued investment.
“I need to have the funding necessary to quickly implement basic infrastructure, repair basic infrastructure and make sure that services are available to people,” he said.
“The problems in Haiti are enormous and we are making sure that we know what their priorities are and how we can address security and also economic needs and make sure that the funds are actually available,” Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Florida Democrat and the only Haitian-American member of Congress, said in an interview. “We have been fighting here in Congress since October to make sure that the funds are available, because we have a short window of time for success.”
Eight months after the United Nations authorized the deployment of international forces in Haiti, the first wave of Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission forces arrived on June 25 to try to end the violence and regain control of the country.
In Washington, the new prime minister and members of his Cabinet also met with Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. At each stop, Conille, who briefly served as prime minister in 2011, detailed his plans to lead the country out of violence and corruption and restore democratic norms. The transitional government, which was appointed by a council, aims to hold elections before its term expires on Feb. 7, 2026.
“They are eager to create a situation where they can turn things over to a new administration, but they need help,” said Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “They need resources.”
Democrats in Congress have pressed the Biden administration to do more to support the island nation of more than 11 million people.
But the funding efforts face opposition from senior Republicans in Congress, who say the specific goals of the mission and ways to measure success are unclear. They remain wary of investing millions of dollars in a gang-controlled country with a long history of political corruption.
“The Biden administration’s decision to reverse the suspension I had placed on U.S. taxpayer funding for Haiti’s ill-conceived MSS is extremely disappointing,” Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement, using the acronym for the international police force. “I have been very clear about my serious and specific concerns about this mission since last September. My concerns exist in part because of the long history of failed international interventions in Haiti, which have wasted billions of dollars and left the Haitian people worse off.”
Joining Mr. Risch, Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, condemned the deployment of Kenyan troops to Haiti, saying the move had left the African nation vulnerable to its own instability.
“On the same day, 400 Kenyan police officers arrived in Haiti and the Kenyan Parliament was overrun by protesters,” the two Republicans said in a statement. “As a result, the Kenyan military mobilized under dubious constitutional authority and used live ammunition to repel protesters, killing more than 20 civilians. The administration must find a different solution to address insecurity in Haiti.”
The recent violent clashes and riots centred in the capital Port-au-Prince were the latest disruption to civil order in a country still plagued by a series of crises.
Haitians, still recovering from a series of natural disasters including catastrophic earthquakes in 2010 and 2021, have also faced food shortages, cholera outbreaks and limited access to basic health care in some parts of the country.
Instability reached new levels in 2021 when President Jovenel Moïse, elected in 2016, was assassinated in his home. Since then, no elections have been held and gang violence has taken hold. The United Nations has estimated that nearly 80 percent of Port-au-Prince is controlled by a coalition of gangs.
Mr. Meeks and Ms. Cherfilus-McCormick said they were optimistic that the international police mission would succeed in putting Haiti on the path to stability.
“One of the things I think is important, at least to me, is that the prime minister is not someone that the United States has supported,” Meeks said.
If Conille can preside over the demise of the gangs and restore stability, “that will lead to a completely different atmosphere on the island,” he added.
Ms Cherfilus-McCormick said she hoped a significant show of force against violence would “also encourage the Haitian people to start participating” in the country’s transition to a stable democracy and attract citizens back to the country.
“If we can help Haitians stay in Haiti, if we can help them prosper and be able to get ahead, then that becomes another country that we can partner with,” he said.
“We only have one chance,” Conille said, “and we cannot fail.”
Frances Robles Contributed reporting.
