As part of Trump aid freeze, police contractors are laid off in Haiti amid gang attacks

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Experts on policing who were contracted by the U.S. government to help a crisis-wracked Haiti take down heavily armed violent gangs are among the first casualties of a sweeping Trump administration 90-day freeze on almost all foreign aid around the world.

Several “subject matter experts” contracted under the Biden administration to help the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission and the Haiti National Police were notified by email Monday that they’ve been furloughed until further notice, several sources confirmed to the Miami Herald. The furloughs are part of a sweeping series of layoffs that have started to hit both the United States Agency for International Development and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, a State Department agency that helps professionalize and strengthen police operations around the world and assists efforts to combat narcotics trafficking.

In Colombia, one of the biggest U.S. counter-narcotics efforts, some 250 contractors with the bureau were laid off, one source said, citing information provided by the Colombian government. It is unclear how hard Haiti has been hit. Neither Haitian officials nor the State Department has provided details on the number of individuals who have been furloughed affected.