Washington, DC – Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Co-Chair of the House Haiti Caucus,today sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern over the State Department’s decision to designate gangs in Haiti as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) without even a concept of a plan for Haiti. The Members expressed their alarm that absent a clear and comprehensive plan to defeat those gangs and their enablers, this designation will unintentionally exacerbate the suffering of innocent Haitians and help gangs consolidate further control. The letter demands answers from theSecretaryregarding the administration’s rationale for the designation absent an actualstrategy to address the urgent needs of the Haitian people. 

The full text of the letter can be found below. A PDF copy can be found here.

Dear Secretary Rubio,

We write to express our grave concern with the State Department’s stated intent to designategangs in Haiti as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) without first having a comprehensivestrategy to support Haitian authorities’ ability to counter the gangs. We call on you to develop anactual strategy that addresses the urgent needs of the Haitian people, support for stabilizing thesecurity situation, and policies that support greater economic opportunity, including theHOPE/HELP trade preference agreement for Haitians. While we support efforts to target thefinancial support of violent gangs wreaking havoc on innocent Haitians, we are concerned thatan FTO designation, absent a clear, comprehensive U.S. strategy to defeat the gangs and theirenablers, is counterproductive and will only exacerbate Haitians’ suffering. 

An FTO designation imposes broad legal and financial sanctions that deter non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) and international agencies from operating due to fear of legal exposure—even when their work is purely humanitarian in nature. Humanitarian aid serves as an essentialbulwark against the gangs and their control of local economic activity in Haiti, and an FTOdesignation risks creating a chilling effect on the delivery of this much needed assistance. Thegangs exploit the security vacuum they helped create, recruiting young men and children withfalse promises of protection and pay. If an FTO designation undermines aid delivery across 85%of Port-au-Prince or in Haiti’s Artibonite department, it’s the Haitian people—not the gangs—who will be punished. As reports of cholera and scabies in Haiti are on the rise, and with your cutting of funds to programs like the Improved Health Service Delivery project, which provided health services for maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, nutrition, HIV, tuberculosis,and water, sanitation and hygiene to over 3 million people, including 20,000 living with HIVAIDS,further cuts to humanitarian assistance will have devastating results.

We also believe the Department can make better use of sanctions authorities to levy targetedsanctions against individuals facilitating and benefitting from gang-fueled instability in Haiti. OnAugust 20th, 2024, the Treasury Department sanctioned former President Michel Martelly forperpetuating the ongoing crisis in Haiti. If the State Department seeks more authorities tosanction enablers of Haiti’s crisis, we want to work with you to pass H.R. 2643, the HaitiCriminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2025, a bipartisan bill we have introduced that wouldlevy sanctions on Haitian political and economic elites financing, arming, and benefitting fromongoing violence and the humanitarian crisis in Haiti. This legislation would enable a concertedeffort against the gangs while keeping intact humanitarian assistance to Haitians enduring gangviolence and instability.Prioritizing an FTO designation before taking full advantage of the other tools available toaddress the gang violence—like the use of additional unilateral or coordinated sanctions—ordeveloping a strategy to make the Multilateral Support Mission effective is shortsighted. Weremain concerned over the situation in Haiti and support a strong—and smart—U.S. response.

So, we urge you to reconsider any designation that would prove counterproductive in counteringthe gangs and further increase the suffering of innocent Haitians. Thank you for your attention tothis matter.