Haitian leader says the Trump administration's plans will be 'catastrophic' for his country

ROME — The president of Haiti's transitional presidential council said the Trump administration's decisions to freeze aid programs, deport migrants and block refugees will be ''catastrophic'' for Haiti.

Leslie Voltaire made the comment in an interview with The Associated Press in Rome on Saturday following a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican. He visited the pope to ask for help for Haiti.

''I'm knocking on the doors of people who love Haiti. The pope loves Haiti, and he is eager to help,'' Haiti's interim president said.

The pontiff and Voltaire discussed the dire situation in Haiti where gangs have killed civilians and operate across the Caribbean nation with impunity. Half of Haiti's 11.4 million people are already hungry, according to Voltaire, and losing humanitarian assistance will make the situation dramatically worse.

''Trump said that Haiti is a ‘shithole,' so I don't think he will care about Haiti,'' Voltaire said, noting that thousands of people are already being repatriated from the Dominican Republic every week and gangs are terrorizing the populace. With the new U.S. policies, ''the situation will be catastrophic.''

During his first administration, President Donald Trump used bluntly vulgar language to question why the U.S. would accept immigrants from Haiti and ''shithole countries'' in Africa. At the time, the White House did not deny his remark but issued a statement saying Trump supports immigration policies that welcome ''those who can contribute to our society.''

Voltaire said there are roughly 1.5 million Haitians in the United States and roughly 150,000 who were accepted under a program called the ''Temporary Protection System.''

''Trump says that he will expel all of them,'' Voltaire said, adding that Haiti, which is already struggling with hunger and internally displaced people, cannot handle the influx.

In a report released this month, the U.N. migration agency said internal displacement within Haiti has tripled over the last year and n ow surpasses 1 million people. The situation has been largely caused by gang violence in the Caribbean country. The new figure provided by the International Organization for Migration represents a record for Haiti.

IOM said that ''relentless gang violence'' in Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince has fueled a near-doubling of displacement in the city and a collapse of health care and other services and worsening food insecurity. About 200,000 people have been forcibly returned to Haiti over the last year mostly from Dominican Republic.

Voltaire and his transitional government have been tasked with leading the country to general elections, an elusive goal but he is convinced they can make it happen by next November despite powerful gangs that rule 85% of the capital and are gaining ground in surrounding areas.

Nevertheless, Voltaire is positive that if Haiti's multinational police force is boosted with several thousand additional officers they can go ahead with elections this year.

Kenya is leading the multinational police force with a total deployment of more than 600, below the 1,000 officers the country's president pledged. An additional 150 Guatemalans and an advance team of eight Salvadorean troops have also arrived, but the force remains far below its anticipated strength of 2,500 officers. Voltaire said Benin has pledged an additional 2,000 soldiers.

''We have to do a referendum on a new constitution and also the election at the end of November. I say that we can do the elections because we have like eight departments, like 80% of the country. We can do the election.''

The power of gangs in Haiti has grown since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Some gangs have even indicated they want to be part of the political process. Voltaire excluded that possibility, ''I don't think they should be around the table. I think they are criminals.''

More than 5,600 people were reported killed across Haiti last year, according to the United Nations. The number of killings increased by more than 20% compared with all of 2023, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

Last week U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that gangs could soon could overrun the capital, Port-au-Prince, leading to a complete breakdown of government authority without additional international support for the beleaguered national police.

Voltaire said he asked the pontiff to organize an international conference of solidarity for Haiti. The Pope wrote ''international conference'' on a sheet of paper, Voltaire said, and later the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, told him the Vatican would try to convince Mexico and Canada to participate in funding a conference on Haiti.