Biden’s ‘Desertion’ of Americans Trapped in Haiti Shows Ongoing Incompetence, Experts Say

A family of American missionaries are imploring the Biden administration for help getting out of Haiti, which has been ripped apart in recent weeks by gang violence that has plunged the impoverished Caribbean country into chaos amid gang leaders’ demands for the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. GOP lawmakers and experts say Biden’s inaction in Haiti is the latest example of an administration that continually jeopardizes American lives abroad.

On Tuesday, the New York Post reported that Jill Dolan and her children are currently trapped in a makeshift hotel in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where gun battles between rival gangs erupt constantly and looters prowl the streets.

Dolan, who runs the Love a Neighbor ministry that provides an orphanage, health clinic, and senior living in a small Haitian village with her husband Ryan, was in the process of traveling with her adopted teenage children to Florida for a wedding when the airport in Port-au-Prince was attacked by gangs, causing all commercial flights to be canceled. Dolan and her children were forced to shelter in a small hotel near the airport. “My fear is that we will be caught in the middle of something really dangerous. We’re already on the front lines of it; we’re in a bad area. It’s kind of depressing. The gunfire never stops,” she told the New York Post.

As Dolan described, contacting the U.S. Embassy for assistance did not prove to be helpful. “Really what they say is like, ‘Be safe.’ I’m just like, ‘Okay, well that’s not really helpful.’” She went on to note that other Biden administration agencies have likewise not offered assistance. “We’ve contacted agencies to extract us out. They have just said, ‘It’s way too dangerous where you are; you have to stay put,’” she explained.

In a statement posted on Love a Neighbor’s Facebook page, a family member related how Dolan’s resources are in short supply. “Jill says their funds are running low due to the unexpected dire situation and has asked for any financial help you can give along with your prayer support,” the family member wrote. “Plus they might need to be evacuated by a private security company, which is expensive. I’m praying the U.S. government might help as well. … The address for aid gifts is their home church, www.camanochapel.org/give-online and hit the Give Online button and select Dolan Family. … Thanks for any aid you can give and for your prayers.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. military conducted an operation over the weekend to extract non-essential American personnel from the U.S. Embassy and to provide additional security.

Other trapped missionaries such as Miriam Cinotti, who helps young women escape gang violence, related how they feel abandoned by the Biden administration amid the violence. “Nobody’s reached out to us or anything. And then, of course, when we saw the non-essential workers get picked up, we were thinking, ‘Well, maybe they’re going to come back and start evacuating Port-au-Prince and then have a plane for everyone else.’”

In the meantime, congressional Republicans have taken it upon themselves to organize rescue missions for those trapped in Haiti. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) was able to arrange for the evacuation of 10 Americans from an orphanage in Port-au-Prince Monday. “This mission reiterates a disturbing reality under President Biden’s leadership: American lives are continually jeopardized,” Mills said on Tuesday. “I have led missions to rescue Americans multiple times when Joe Biden has deserted them. There’s a clear pattern of abandonment. Yet again, this group was left behind by Biden and his State Department after requesting their help in country.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) further pointed out how Biden’s inaction in Haiti is part of a larger pattern of incompetence. “We’ve had multiple members of Congress rescuing U.S. citizens that were trapped in the West Bank and elsewhere in Israel, that were trapped in or are still trapped in Afghanistan,” he observed Tuesday. “We have a breakdown here between the State Department and DOD [Department of Defense] in terms of having assets and resources available to go get Americans.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Family Research Council Senior Fellow for International Religious Freedom Lela Gilbert expressed additional concerns about the Biden administration’s policies in Haiti.

“As another international disturbance explodes, President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged millions of dollars in emergency aid to Haiti; thus far it is unclear who will receive these funds,” she observed. “Unfortunately, apart from protection for the U.S. Embassy itself, it seems that no further help for stranded Americans is on the way to Haiti. And as we’ve learned during Joe Biden’s administration, such help is even less likely for endangered Christian missionaries.”