WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security and a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) joined 61 other members of Congress in sending a letter to the Departments of State (State), Homeland Security (DHS), Commerce (Commerce), and Justice (DOJ), urging them to strengthen steps to prevent the flow of illegal firearms from the United States into Haiti.

Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, armed gangs have consolidated power in Haiti fueled in-part by an influx of guns trafficked into Haiti. Though the country itself does not manufacture guns, there are an estimated 500,000 firearms in the country, and the United States is the number one source of these guns, often making their way through Florida. 

As a result, gangs have outgunned and overpowered the Haitian National Police and other security forces, leading to the displacement of over 300,000 Haitians and created a widespread humanitarian crisis.

“The escalation of firepower contributes to gangs’ capacity to terrorize civilians (including through systematic sexual violence), contributes to internal displacement, and directly impedes efforts by security forces working to regain control of the country,” the members wrote.

The lawmakers are pushing five recommendations to strengthen the administration’s current efforts, including increased staffing and stricter screening of packages going to Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean. The lawmakers also recommend the DOJ’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) implement a strategy to increase the number of firearms recovered in Haiti that are submitted for tracing in order to identify gun traffickers and dealers who sell to them. 

The lawmakers are also calling for an expansion of the “Demand Letter 3” program, which requires federal firearms licensees in certain states to notify ATF if they sell someone multiple semi-automatic rifles in a five-day period. This letter calls for expanding the program to include key states where Haiti’s trafficked assault weapons originate — including Florida.

“Cracking down on the flow of illegal weapons that are facilitating rampant gang violence in Haiti advances U.S. security. It is also a moral imperative,” the members continued. 

U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also signed the letter.

The full text of the letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Blinken, Secretary Mayorkas, Secretary Raimondo, and Attorney General Garland:

Haiti remains a key destination for firearms and ammunition trafficked illegally from the United States. The alarming inflow exacerbates the humanitarian, political, and security crisis in Haiti, undermining U.S. security assistance to a country that faces one of the world’s most dire security and humanitarian emergencies. Since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, armed gangs have consolidated power in Haiti. Around 200 gangs operate nationwide, and a handful control about 90 percent of the capital city Port-au-Prince, while several fan out across the country. Meanwhile, roughly 360,000 Haitians have been displaced over the past year alone. As violence escalated between 2021 and 2022, gun trafficking into Haiti surged. Together, Haiti’s armed groups have thousands of members, many equipped with powerful assault weapons that outgun the Haitian National Police (HNP). In this nation gripped by gun violence, American-made weapons are easy to come by, even as humanitarian aid becomes harder to deliver. The United Nations estimates that there could be as many as 500,000 guns in Haiti, though the country does not produce firearms domestically. Instead, the United States is the number one source of firearms entering Haiti today.

While exporting arms to Haiti is illegal under an international arms embargo, an underground market for firearms has thrived. Guns that would typically sell for $400-500 in the United States

can sell for as much as $10,000 in Haiti, incentivizing traffickers to evade U.S arms export controls. Often, “straw purchaser” intermediaries and traffickers obtain firearms in U.S. states

with comparatively lenient gun laws — including Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Arizona and Georgia— and send them to South Florida. There, the weapons are concealed and shipped through the Miami River to Haiti, most often via freight containers, but sometimes via small secretive boats and even planes. Some U.S. firearms also make their way into Haiti through middlemen in other parts of the Caribbean.14 Overall, the vast majority of guns circulating in Haiti are likely illegal.

We are alarmed by the rising lethality, quantity, and caliber of illicit weapons in Haiti. Increasingly, the weapons smuggled into Haiti are high-powered assault rifles, including the AK47 and AR-15 models in high demand by criminal groups. Haiti is also seeing a rise in “ghost guns” that can be assembled from machine parts at home. The escalation of firepower contributes to gangs’ capacity to terrorize civilians (including through systematic sexual violence), contributes to internal displacement, and directly impedes efforts by security forces working to regain control of the country.

Following the calls of Haitian civil society groups, the Biden-Harris Administration has worked to stabilize Haiti through diplomacy and security assistance, working to advance a Multilateral Security Support (MSS) mission for Haiti, supporting Haitian-led efforts to establish a legitimate transitional government, and arming and equipping a beleaguered HNP. These efforts are laudable and demonstrate your commitment to advance stability, security, and prosperity in Haiti. However, these efforts will be undermined without more thoroughly addressing the crisis of illicit arms trafficking to Haiti.

First, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) should increase the scale of U.S. personnel and equipment dedicated to screening the contents of ships exiting ports via the Miami River — the primary starting point for firearm shipments to Haiti. Firearms are “hidden in various ways, including inside consumer products, electronic equipment, garment linings, frozen food items or even the hulls of freighters,” posing a daunting challenge for CBP and HSI. The amount of cargo going through the Miami River makes shipments notoriously difficult to search. Even with reliable information, it can take CBP and HSI “weeks to unpack and look for [smuggled weapons], and [they] still may not find [them].” As of October 2023, CBP reportedly had doubled the frequency of interdiction operations on the Miami River. Still, effectively monitoring illegal shipments of arms to Haiti will require DHS to further allocate additional resources to monitor cargo leaving South Florida, as a vital intervention to interrupt the flow of firearms to the Caribbean. Providing additional resources would assist HSI in dismantling trafficking networks and aid CBP’s other border security priorities, by helping address one of the root causes that drive Haitian asylum seekers to flee to the United States for safety.

Second, the Commerce Department should ensure that adequate export control personnel are stationed at U.S. embassies in the Caribbean in order to monitor arms trafficking into Haiti and other countries of concern in the region. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is responsible for enforcing most export controls yet does not have personnel present in the Caribbean. BIS should dedicate more staff to focus on disrupting arms trafficking to Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean, including through dedicated personnel stationed in the region. This localized presence would facilitate better intelligence gathering and coordination with U.S., regional, and local authorities, and enhance efforts to intercept illegal arms shipments.

Third, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) should implement a strategy to increase the number of firearms recovered in Haiti that are submitted for tracing. Guns recovered in crimes overseas can be submitted to the ATF for tracing, which allows U.S. investigators to link guns to the dealers who sold them and to the individuals who trafficked them. However, we are concerned that only a fraction of firearms recovered in Haiti are being submitted for tracing. For example, in 2020, only 81 guns recovered

in Haiti were submitted to ATF for tracing, though likely hundreds were seized. While pervasive insecurity and threats against Haitian authorities who recover and trace firearms play a

role in underreporting, it is critical that the Administration address barriers preventing regular use of ATF’s e-Trace system. The Administration can do so by: investing in training Haitian

authorities and officials within the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Crime Gun Intelligence Unit on firearms tracing and recovery; translating the e-Trace system into French or Haitian Creole to address language barriers preventing its use; and fostering regular coordination between Haitian officials and U.S. officials who submit tracing reports on Haitian officials’ behalf. Furthermore, as firearm traces are completed, ATF should ensure that the public has access to aggregated gun trace data on a per-dealer basis as requested previously by Members of Congress. By releasing data about each dealer that sells to traffickers, ATF can help researchers, advocates, litigants, and other members of the public better understand the supply chains that funnel American weapons into Haiti and hold accountable the small minority of gun stores that illicitly sell arms.

Fourth, ATF should expand its “Demand Letter 3” program to cover states linked to arms trafficking to Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean. Under Demand Letter 3, federal firearms licensees (FFLs) must notify ATF if they sell someone multiple semi-automatic rifles in a five-day period — but only if the FFL operates in Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas. ATF selected those states because they are responsible for the bulk of U.S. gun trafficking into Mexico, which the program was designed to combat. ATF should similarly make Haiti a Demand Letter 3 priority, given its status as a top destination for internationally trafficked U.S. guns. The agency should require reporting of multiple semi-automatic rifle sales by FFLs located in key states where Haiti’s trafficked assault weapons originate — including Florida, which is a top origin state for illegal guns not only in Haiti but elsewhere overseas. ATF can do so while maintaining a narrow scope for the program. The increased reporting requirement would help ATF expedite the process of identifying firearm traffickers linked to gun crimes in the Caribbean.

Finally, the State Department, Commerce Department, DHS, and DOJ must implement an interagency strategy to stop the illegal flow of arms, reflecting a coordinated approach to investigate, share information, and enforce laws to disrupt arms trafficking to Haiti and the wider Caribbean. As part of this effort, we ask the interagency to collect and report to Congress data about arms export trends, arms trafficking trends, and efforts to disrupt illegal firearm exports — including applicable data on the work of DOJ’s Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions, HSI’s Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit (TCIU) in Haiti, and other TCIUs in the Caribbean. This strategy development and reporting will help identify any gaps in authorities or resources needed to end the United States’ complicity in this ongoing crisis. This strategy is included in the Americas Regional Monitoring of Arms Sales (ARMAS) Act introduced in the House and Senate. But importantly, the Administration does not require legislation to move forward with developing such a strategy and should do so now, while leveraging existing authorities such as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act’s provisions on straw purchases.

Cracking down on the flow of illegal weapons that are facilitating rampant gang violence in Haiti advances U.S. security. It is also a moral imperative. After decades of failed U.S. foreign policy in Haiti, we must not allow American weapons to further fuel instability in the country. To better understand the Administration’s efforts to combat arms trafficking to Haiti, we request answers to the following questions:

  1. What steps has the Administration taken in 2024 to strengthen inter-agency coordination to address arms trafficking to Haiti, including the trafficking of ghost guns?
    1. How has the security crisis impacted U.S. efforts to trace and recover weapons in Haiti?
  2. Please provide details about the personnel, budget, and other resources that BIS, CBP, HSI, and ATF have dedicated to addressing arms trafficking to Haiti, as well as any plans for increasing the resources allocated to this issue.
    1. Please describe any resource constraints affecting U.S. efforts to control and oversee arms exports and weapons transfers to Haiti, including through end-use monitoring of weapons.
  3. How has the Coordinator for Caribbean Firearms Prosecutions worked to elevate and coordinate investigations and prosecutions focused on straw purchases and arms trafficking to Haiti, including in cooperation with CARICOM?
  4. What steps is the Administration taking to monitor cargo worth less than $2,500 that passes through the Miami River?
  5. Please describe ATF’s plans for increasing public access to gun trace data, to the maximum extent permitted under the Tiahrt Amendment.

We appreciate your attention to this important matter.

Sincerely,

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