The U.S. government will be required to investigate and report on members of Haiti’s political and economic elite who have colluded with violent gangs, and to impose sanctions on those found to have done so, under legislation Congress has approved.
The measure, known as the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act, was passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, which is awaiting President Donald Trump’s signature. It is the only major piece of legislation addressing Haiti to pass Congress this year.
The Haiti law was spearheaded by Dem. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott was a co-sponsor of the bill.
Once enacted, the legislation will require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress over the next five years a detailed assessment of the scale and nature of criminal collusion in Haiti. The report must identify the country’s most prominent gangs and their leaders, as well as current and former government officials and business people with direct and significant ties to them, and explain how those relationships are used to advance private interests.
In addition to mandating reporting, the law requires the imposition of economic sanctions on individuals found to have supported or benefited from gang activity.
“There will be no progress to address the gang-fueled crisis in Haiti without dealing a blow to the enablers of the violent gangs driving the violence and displacement,” Meeks said. “The passage of my Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act… will help Haitians fight back against the gangs, as well as the corrupt networks that fund, arm and benefit from the current instability.
No new funding
More than 16,000 people have died in Haiti in gang-related violence since the July 2021 assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, plunged the Caribbean nation deeper into political instability. Haiti is also undergoing its worst humanitarian crisis since a devastating 2010 earthquake left 1.5 million internally displaced.
On Thursday, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Port-au-Prince, Nicole Kouassi, launcheda 2026 plan seeking $880 million to support 4.2 million vulnerable Haitians out of 6.4 million “who need aid and are bearing the brunt of the violence at the hands of armed groups,” Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said. The amount is a little less than this year’s $908 million appeal, which only raised $206 million despite the immense needs.
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Internal displacement triggered by armed violence has doubled in a year, with more than 1.4 million Haitians, or 12% of the country’s population, now living in sordid camps or with friends and relatives after being forced to fleed their homes.
“Widespread insecurity in the metropolitan Port-au-Prince area and its gradual spread to regional zones has caused displacements, stifled Haiti’s economy and limited people’s access to food,” Haq said. “Some 5.7 million people, which is half of Haiti’s population, are currently going hungry every day.”
He also noted that, with an average of 27 cases per day of gender-based violence, the impact of gang violence on women and girls “has been devastating.”
Meanwhile, the country continues to be mired in gang-related attacks that have forced the continued ban of U.S. commercial flights into Port-au-Prince.
As part of the U.S. foreign police response, the State Department has expanded its use of sanctions, stripping politicians and well-heeled businessmen of their U.S. visas while pushing for global sanctions at the U.N. But those efforts, which have been joined by Canada and the European Union, have done little to stem the tide of violence — or to guarantee that gang members and those who collaborate with gangs won’t get a place in any future government.
A new electoral law, for example, that was published amid pressure from the U.S. does not recognize bilateral sanctions or have a morality clause, which leaves the door open for many with suspected gang ties and criminal profiles to run for political office.
Another challenge of the new legislation Congress passed is that it does not include new funding, a decision intended to ensure its bipartisan support. In recent years, the State Department has reduced embassy staffing in Port-au-Prince, citing the escalating gang violence, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has closed its Haiti office. The DEA had been the lead agency for criminal investigations.
All of that raises questions about how U.S. officials will carry out their new mandate and whether reporting will be based on independent, rigorous investigations or secondhand and unverified allegations.
In recent months, several Haitian businesspeople have had their U.S. visas revoked without explanation, according to accounts in which they were questioned about the gang ties of others at Miami International Airport before being put on flights and sent back to Haiti.
At the same time, the administration has accused two members of the country’s economic elite of supporting armed gangs without providing any evidence to back up the claims. Pierre Reginald Boulos was detained in Palm Beach country on an immigration violation after failing to disclosed he was the founder of a political party in Haiti, and Dimitri Vorbe was picked up at his South Miami home despite his passport being in U.S. custody over the last five years while his case was before a U.S. immigration court. Both men remain detained at the Krome detention center.
Pushing for criminal law
The Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act grew out of an advocacy campaign that in 2023 called for holding influential Haitians accountable for allegedly arming and profiting from criminal gangs. The petition drive gathered more than 110,000 signatures and was led by North Miami pastor Gregory Toussaint, who brought together thousands of people in the U.S., Haiti, Canada and France to bring awareness to the crisis in the Caribbean country. Toussaint is head of Shekinah.fm and senior pastor of Tabernacle of Glory. In a statement, the advocacy group Faith in Action International praised Congress for passing the law, saying it “sets the record straight about the true causes of widespread violence and kidnapping in Haiti, a necessary step for restoring governance and security.
“Congress’s action is a potential turning point for Haiti that provides a measure of hope to Haitians at a trying time,” the group said. “We urge Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fully implement the law, including sanctions on including sanctions on influential individuals who have colluded with violent gangs.”
The group said the passage of the act is also another strong reason for extending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in the U.S. Though gangs control up to 90% of metropolitan Port-au-Prince and are expanding to other regions of the country, the Department of Homeland Security has said it’s not in the U.S. interest for Haitians to remain and recently announced the end of temporarily legal protections for Haitians as of Feb. 3, 2026.
Faith in Action says that given the “continued high levels of violence and kidnapping driven by gang-elite collusion,” Haitians should not be forced to return to their country. “The country’s main airport remains closed and deportations are destabilizing once stable areas.”
