{"id":218918,"date":"2010-01-14T14:38:42","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T19:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/opiniojuris.org\/?p=10987"},"modified":"2010-01-14T14:38:42","modified_gmt":"2010-01-14T19:38:42","slug":"haiti-should-the-us-evacuate-american-citizens-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/218918","title":{"rendered":"Haiti: Should the US Evacuate American Citizens First?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Peter Spiro <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are an estimated 45,000 US citizens in Haiti, and there’s an assumption that they should be first in line to receive US assistance.\u00a0 As Hillary Clinton said yesterday, “They are our principal responsibility, to make sure that they’re safe, to evacuate those who need medical care.”\u00a0 In his remarks this morning, President Obama stressed that “We will not rest until we account for our fellow Americans in harm’s way.”\u00a0 The State Department has asked journalists in Haiti to get the word out that US citizens who would like to be evacuated should make their way to the airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This makes the most sense for US government personnel (and perhaps especially their families).\u00a0 It also probably makes sense for US citizens who were unlucky enough to find themselves in Port au Prince as tourists<\/a> when the quake struck.\u00a0 These are people who may be in some ways at special risk, in alien territory, and their government owes a special responsibility to them.<\/p>\n

But the vast majority of the 45,000 are not in either category.\u00a0 (Another nontrivial category is aid workers who were already in place at the time of the quake, but assuming they are able-bodied, they are right where they want to be.)\u00a0 Most are Haitian-born naturalized US citizens who had returned to Haiti; children born in the US to Haitian immigrants who returned to Haiti; or born in Haiti to US citizen parents.\u00a0 In other words, US citizens who make Haiti their home.\u00a0 (Most probably hold dual citizenship.\u00a0 Although Haitian law does not recognize dual citizenship, in practice the status is common.)<\/p>\n

Should these individuals get priority for US help?\u00a0 I don’t mean to challenge their entitlement to citizenship.\u00a0 An estimated 4-5 million Americans live abroad, many permanently, and their right to retain citizenship as nonresidents is water under the bridge.\u00a0 But as between a healthy US citizen who lives in Haiti (and who wants to get out because it is not a nice place to be now) and an injured non-US citizen who may die if not taken to a hospital ship or Miami or someplace where there are functioning medical facilities, the choice is not so obvious.\u00a0 Evacuation capacities are finite.\u00a0 Putting US citizens at the front of the line means putting others at the back.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Peter Spiro There are an estimated 45,000 US citizens in Haiti, and there’s an assumption that they should be first in line to receive US assistance.\u00a0 As Hillary Clinton said yesterday, “They are our principal responsibility, to make sure that they’re safe, to evacuate those who need medical care.”\u00a0 In his remarks this morning, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}