FORT PIERCE, Fla. — As the unrest in Haiti heightens, immigration in Florida may start to increase, too.
The Associated Press on Monday reported that heavily armed gangs tried to seize control of Haiti's main international airport in Port-au-Prince, exchanging gunfire with police.
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It's the latest attack on a government site after hundreds of inmates fled Haiti's main prison when gang members stormed the facility.
"Up until this point, the international airports were the safest places to be," Roger Sands, vice president of Administration for Missionary Flights International said. "The safety factor's been extremely worse."
Missionary Flights International, or MFI, is a nonprofit in Fort Pierce that flies boxes of supplies to around 600 missionaries in Haiti and other countries.
The organization was forced to ground its flights for the first time in a long time.
"We just can't take the risk of our staff," Sands said.
"We can't fly into an airport that's physically closed," added Larry Campbell, vice president of operations for MFI. "At this point, we also have people that, because of the danger, want to come out."
That apparently may apply to many Haitian citizens.
Agents with Customs and Border Protection reported responding to four to five migrant encounters in just the past month.
The majority took place just this past week, and nearly all migrants on board were Haitian.
"In general, migration is from places with civil and economic unrest, and they come here obviously because they can be relatively safe here," immigration attorney Bill Gerstein said.
Gerstein said it's a correlation he often sees — conditions in low-income or turbulent countries deteriorate and migrant encounters increase.
"We definitely could (see an increase) and if they do take the route by sea, it's extremely dangerous," Gerstein said.
It's a Catch-22 for the missionaries, who are now grounded from helping.
"The school is almost out of food, and they're depending on us to get the food there, and when we're stopped like this, they're really hurting," Sands said. "It's multiple hundreds of kids that won't be able to eat."
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