The United States’ special envoy to Haiti Ambassador Daniel Foote has resigned amid large-scale deportation of Haitian migrants to their homeland. In a note to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Foote wrote that he ‘will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision’. 

 US officials, unnamed, on Thursday confirmed Foote’s resignation. 

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“I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed gangs to daily life,” he wrote to Blinken. 

“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my policy recommendations have been ignored and dismissed, when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.”

Daniel Foote was appointed as United States’ ambassador to the Caribbean country after the assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise in July. 

The career diplomat was known to be deeply frustrated with what he considered a lack of urgency in Washington and a glacial pace on efforts to improve conditions in Haiti.

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One official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Foote had consistently sought greater oversight of Haiti policy and that the administration did not believe his requests were appropriate.

The camp on Texas has shrunk considerably since surpassing more than 14,000 people on Saturday – many of them expelled and many released in the U.S. with notices to report to immigration authorities.

Images went viral this week of Border Patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics against the migrants.

The expulsion flights to Haiti began Sunday and there were 10 by the end of Tuesday, according to Haitian officials. U.S. officials say they are ramping up to seven flights a day, which would mark one of the swiftest, large-scale expulsions from the U.S. in decades.

Foote served previously in Haiti as deputy chief of mission and is a former ambassador to Zambia. In new role, he worked with the U.S. ambassador to support Haiti after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

With inputs from the Associated Press