The amount of Haitians held in immigration detention skyrockets and the federal government starts holding them in federal prisons. Facing accusations of racism inside and outside the courts, the Reagan Administration decided to make a drastic policy shift: instead of treating Haitians like everyone else, it would now treat everyone else like Haitians.
Fifty years ago, Haitian refugees fleeing a brutal dictatorship started to land on the shores of Florida. These arrival by boats, and later those from Cuba, sparked a wholesale change of how the immigration system works in the U.S. the beginning of the modern era of mass immigration detention. The effects are still felt today, as record numbers seek the Land of the Free and end up in detention.
In early March, a group of about two dozen Haitians, maybe more, departed on a small motor boat from the coast of the Dominican Republic headed to Puerto Rico, about 80 miles away across the treacherous Mona Passage.