The Obama administration's immigration service, like its predecessor, is doing all it can to evade accountability.

After the US deported Wildrick Guerrier in late January, he was jailed by Haitian authorities, just as human rights groups had said he would be. Haiti regularly jails deportees who have criminal convictions in the US, for varying lengths of time. Guerrier was among a group of 27 Haitians "removed" from the US, the first group to be returned since the earthquake a year ago.

In fact, all 27 deportees were jailed by Haitian authorities on their return, according to Rebecca Sharpless, director of the University of Miami Law School's Immigration Clinic (pdf). Deportation opponents had warned the US government about the potential consequences of deportees being confined to an overcrowded Haitian jail cell during a cholera epidemic. A little more than a week after his deportation, Guerrier was dead. "While in jail in Haiti, Guerrier suffered from cholera-like symptoms, including extreme vomiting and uncontrollable diarrhoea," according to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Centre (FIAC). "He died shortly thereafter."

Guerrier had been serving an 18-month sentence for firearms possession when ICE took him into custody. He was 34 when he died, and had lived half his life in the United States. Contrary to popular perception, most of these deportees were lawful permanent residents, not "illegals". ICE has said that this year – even after the news of Guerrier's death – its goal is to deport 700 Haitian "criminal aliens", a term wielded to prevent the public from distinguishing murderers from traffic-law violators, and drug-users from people charged with crimes but never convicted.