PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations announced $60 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Haiti during a trip Monday to the troubled Caribbean country.
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said the U.S. Defense Department would provide a “substantial increase” in mine-resistant vehicles to a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission led by Kenya to help Haiti’s national police combat widespread gang violence.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top, center left, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Jankins, top, center right, meet with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
A Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force stands next to a row of armored vehicles at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP
Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of a UN-backed multinational police force, right, speaks to the new Haitian Chief of Police Rameau Normil as they wait for the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
Kenyan police part of a UN-backed multinational force stand in formation at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second from right, shakes hands with a Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force during a visit to their base near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, greets doctors and nurses part of a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of UN-backed multinational force, second from right, and Haitian Police Chief Normil Rameau attend a welcome demonstration from Kenyan police at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top, center left, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Jankins, top, center right, meet with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, right, holds out a cell phone to take a photo with, from right, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Haitian Foreign Minister Dominque Dupuy before they meet with the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, front left, walks on the tarmac with Haitian Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, partially covered, after landing at Toussaint L'Overture International airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top right, shakes hands with Edgard Leblanc Fils, head of the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, fourth from right, poses for photos after meeting with members of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, left side of table, at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, shakes hands with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille as they gather for a group photo with the Transitional Presidential Council after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, waves upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air Force plane upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
The announcement came nearly a week after a second Kenyan contingent of 200 police officers arrived in Haiti, following the first contingent of 200 officers last month.
“We know that progress isn’t lineal. There will be inevitable setbacks and stumbling blocks, and yet this mission has opened a door to progress,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
She said the USAID assistance, which now totals more than $165 million this fiscal year, would fill gaps in nutrition, food security and shelter; improve water and sanitation services; and provide Haitians with cash to buy basic goods.
Earlier Monday, Thomas-Greenfield met with Kenyan police and leaders of Haiti's new transitional government as part of a one-day visit to encourage action on Haiti's humanitarian crisis and political reform leading to democratic elections that have yet to be scheduled.
“This isn’t a naïve sense of hope, but I do have a sense of hope. This has been a remarkable day on the ground,” she said.
There has been wide international support for the new transitional government led by Prime Minister Garry Conille, a former U.N. development specialist who assumed the post in early June. Earlier this month, he told the U.N. Security Council that the Kenyan police will be crucial to helping control the country’s gangs and moving toward democratic elections.
Gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital and surrounding areas. A surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
According to U.N. agencies, the violence has displaced 580,000 people, more than half of whom are children, and resulted in 4 million people facing food insecurity.
Haiti had asked for the immediate deployment of a foreign armed force to fight gangs in late 2022, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for months for a country to lead the force before the Kenyans came forward.
The multinational force will eventually total 2,500 personnel from Kenya, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica. They will be deployed in phases at a cost of some $600 million a year, according to the U.N. Security Council.
The U.S. has provided over $300 million to the force, whose formation was supported by a U.N. resolution.
The Kenyan police will train the Haitian national police for joint security operations that have not yet begun, the official said.
Associated Press writer Jade Lozada at the United Nations contributed to this report.
Follow AP coverage of Haiti at https://apnews.com/hub/haiti
A Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force stands next to a row of armored vehicles at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP
Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of a UN-backed multinational police force, right, speaks to the new Haitian Chief of Police Rameau Normil as they wait for the arrival of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
Kenyan police part of a UN-backed multinational force stand in formation at their base during a visit by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second from right, shakes hands with a Kenyan police officer part of a UN-backed multinational force during a visit to their base near the airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, greets doctors and nurses part of a U.N.-backed, multinational security mission at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, right, Godfrey Otunga, Kenyan head of UN-backed multinational force, second from right, and Haitian Police Chief Normil Rameau attend a welcome demonstration from Kenyan police at their base in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top, center left, and U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Dennis Jankins, top, center right, meet with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks with Haitian members of civil society at the U.S. embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, right, holds out a cell phone to take a photo with, from right, Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and Haitian Foreign Minister Dominque Dupuy before they meet with the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, front left, walks on the tarmac with Haitian Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy, partially covered, after landing at Toussaint L'Overture International airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, top right, shakes hands with Edgard Leblanc Fils, head of the Haitian Transitional Presidential Council, after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, fourth from right, poses for photos after meeting with members of Haiti's Transitional Presidential Council, left side of table, at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, center, shakes hands with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille as they gather for a group photo with the Transitional Presidential Council after a meeting at the Villa d'Accueil in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, waves upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, second right, steps off a U.S. Air Force plane upon arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, July 22, 2024. Thomas-Greenfield is scheduled to hold talks with the country's transitional presidential council and new Prime Minister Garry Conille during the day-long trip. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool via AP)
President Donald Trump moved to end a decades-old immigration policy known as birthright citizenship when he ordered the cancellation of the constitutional guarantee that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
Trump's roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he's talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain as attorneys general in 18 states and two cities challenged the order in court on Tuesday, seeking to block the president.
Here's a closer look at birthright citizenship, Trump's executive order and reaction to it:
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents' immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.
It's been in place for decades and enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.
The order questions that the 14th Amendment extends citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States.
The 14th Amendment was born in the aftermath of the Civil War and ratified in 1868. It says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump's order excludes the following people from automatic citizenship: those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.
It goes on to bar federal agencies from recognizing the citizenship of people in those categories. It takes effect 30 days from Tuesday, on Feb. 19.
The 14th Amendment did not always guarantee birthright citizenship to all U.S.-born people. Congress did not authorize citizenship for all Native Americans born in the United States, for instance, until 1924.
In 1898 an important birthright citizenship case unfolded in the U.S. Supreme Court. The court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country. After a trip abroad, he had faced denied reentry by the federal government on the grounds that he wasn't a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that while the case clearly applied to children born to parents who are both legal immigrants, it’s less clear whether it applies to children born to parents without legal status.
Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia and San Francisco sued in federal court to block Trump's order.
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said Tuesday the president cannot undo a right written into the Constitution with a stroke of his pen.
“Presidents have broad power but they are not kings,” Platkin said.
Not long after Trump signed the order, immigrant rights groups filed suit to stop it.
Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts along with other immigrant rights advocates filed a suit in New Hampshire federal court.
The suit asks the court to find the order to be unconstitutional. It highlights the case of a woman identified as “Carmen," who is pregnant but is not a citizen. The lawsuit says she has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent status. She has no other immigration status, and the father of her expected child has no immigration status either, the suit says.
“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a grave injury,” the suit said. "It denies them the full membership in U.S. society to which they are entitled."
In addition to New Jersey and the two cities, California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin joined the lawsuit to stop the order.
President-elect Donald Trump, from left, takes the oath of office as Barron Trump and Melania Trump watch at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. flags around the Washington Monument are at full staff during the 60th Presidential Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. Flags are supposed to fly at half-staff through the end of January out of respect for former President Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
A young man reacts to information on how to prepare for the upcoming changes to undocumented families living in the U.S., Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Sonia Rosa Sifore and other anti-Trump protesters gather in Federal Plaza to rally for a number of issues, including immigrant rights, the Israel-Hamas war, women's reproductive rights, racial equality and others, on the day of President Trump's Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on birthright citizenship in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)