Time to Pass the Haiti Hope-Help Act

If there were a way to reduce illegal migration without building a wall, stationing police or spending money, you would want to do that, right?

If there were a way to enable tens of thousands of people to feed themselves instead of relying on U.S. taxpayer supplied food, you would want to do that, right?

If there were a way to buy your T-shirts from somewhere other than China, you would want to do that, right?

And, because you're probably a person of faith who doesn't want others to suffer, if there were a way to enable destitute people to have dignity, jobs and a better future for their children, you might want to support that, right?

If there were a way to give youth an alternative to joining machine-gun toting gangs and drug traffickers located a mere 700 miles from Miami, you would support that, right?

Usually there aren’t fairly simple solutions that can do all that. But in the case of Haiti, there is such a way. We need Congress to pass one version of the bipartisan bills that have been introduced in the Senate and House which enable the production of apparel such as T-shirts and underwear in Haiti.

And they have to do it within the next three months before the existing provisions expire. Sitting a mere 700 miles away from Miami, readers will know what a mess Haiti has been for a long time.

For the last two years, armed gangs, which are basically as well-equipped and led as rogue military units, have made Haiti’s capital city and environs completely unsafe for anybody, have shut down the port and airport, and have broken thousands of criminals out of jails. The economy is in shambles and few people have jobs.

Elections can’t be held. And, undocumented migration to the United States has climbed: last year, Haiti was the seventh biggest source of people arriving at U.S. borders. And, as older readers will remember, this is not the first time Haitians have flocked to the United States in desperation. Haiti has a population of about 11.5 million people.

But close to another million have left the island for the Unites States to escape the misery. If there were more opportunities in Haiti, many of them probably wouldn’t leave Haiti. But historically there have not been any jobs.

That is why Congress, in a strongly bipartisan manner, passed a series of provisions during 2005-2015 that are now known as “Hope-Help.”

They state that as long as a series of requirements are adhered to, a variety of basic apparel such as T-shirts, underwear and sweatpants sewn in Haiti may be sold in the United States duty-free.

These items were being made in places like China, so Hope-Help didn’t eliminate jobs in the United States, it cut them in China. And, unlike a lot of government programs, it worked.

At the November 2021 peak, more than 60,000 Haitians worked in the apparel sector. That meant that 300,000-600,000 Haitians had food on the table every night. All paid for via their own hard work, not violence, illegal activities or charitable donations.

Making America great again includes stopping trade deals with places like China, which never plays by the rules and constantly tries to steal American know how and jobs. For too long, the elites of the United States weren’t paying attention to the toll this was taking in places like Racine, Wisconsin., or Morgantown, West Virginia.

Haiti Hope-Help isn’t taking jobs away from Americans. Haiti Hope-Help can reduce migration without needing CBP. In this time of excessive inflation, when they need to replace torn T-shirts, Americans will be happy to buy inexpensive replacement clothing produced nearby, not in Asia.

The Haiti Hope-Help provisions are about to expire. And companies are already stopping their orders because its not clear our paralyzed Congress can renew them in time.

The lack of inaction is a classic “only in D.C.” story. So, we need the Republican House and the Democratic Senate to get this done before the November elections.

Daniel F. Runde is a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also the author of the book "The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power" (Bombardier Books, 2023).