When the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti in January 2010, the nation’s orphans were among the most vulnerable. Pius Bannis, a U.S. immigration officer, stepped into the breach to help hundreds of those Haitian orphans—babies, toddlers and teens—escape the tragedy and find safety in the United States.
In the days and weeks following the catastrophe, U.S. citizens in the process of adopting children in Haiti were desperate to gain custody of the youngsters and bring them to the United States, but were stymied because they had not yet completed all of the paperwork and requirements that can take as long as three years.
Aided by the Obama administration’s decision to authorize use of humanitarian parole to bring certain orphans to the United States, Bannis, a field office director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), logged 20-hour days, seven days a week to identify and screen eligible cases. He ensured the system was not being exploited by child traffickers or others with bad motives, coordinated with the State Department on evacuation arrangements, and dealt with Haitian authorities.
During the first two weeks after the earthquake, Bannis was the sole American immigration official in Haiti handling the adoption needs. He took it upon himself to set up a make-shift day care in the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, where more than 50 children could be found at any one time, often scared, crying and hungry. He supplied diapers, clean clothes, water and food, and personally drove some of the children to the airport for evacuation flights to the United States.
“What Pius did was the singular most devoted act of public service and humanitarianism that I have seen in all my 30 years in immigration,” said Steve Bucher, deputy associate director of Refugee, Asylum and International Operations at USCIS.
U.S. families adopted 330 Haitian children in all of 2009. Immigration officials said about 1,100 youngsters were allowed to come to the United States through April 2010 as part of the special accelerated program. This enabled their adoptive parents or prospective adoptive parents to remove their children from the devastating conditions of post-earthquake Haiti and bring them to safety. Bannis played a role in each one.
At the same time that Bannis was helping the orphans and their adoptive families, he was providing comfort and support to his Haitian staff who suffered devastating losses—assisting one colleague who lost her home and all seven members of her family, another who lost a brother, and a third who lost her parents and desperately needed medical treatment for family members with life-threatening injuries.
Bannis’ motivation to help the Haitian orphans ran deep, stemming from his humanitarian work in African refugee camps in the early 1990s. He was especially devastated to see the suffering of innocent, helpless children in those camps, and that feeling stayed with him. He said he always takes care of the kids first, and the terrible Haitian earthquake clearly was a time for him to act.
“It was a human reaction to a human tragedy. So many children were dead or dying, and so many were in the process of being adopted. We were all so concerned. My automatic reaction was to take care of them,” Bannis said.
Each family assisted by Bannis has their own story to tell. Thank you letters and e-mails to Bannis, along with photos of the children, have poured into the U.S. Embassy in Haiti and USCIS headquarters.
The family of an adopted girl wrote that “you have dedicated your heart and soul to this matter to ensure that the children have joined their adoptive parents in the United States. What you provided to the children, to Haiti, and to us parents, are immeasurable.”
Another parent wrote, “I want to say thank you for all that you did to help three amazing little boys come from Haiti to the United States to receive surgical care and to have a chance at life! We are so very grateful.”
The severe earthquake and its after-effects resulted in an estimated 220,000 deaths, with many hundreds of thousands left homeless and injured. Of the 117 official government-approved Haitian orphanages, many were left in poor condition or were destroyed in the earthquake.
Originally from the island of Dominica, Bannis is a naturalized American citizen and has worked for the federal government for about 15 years. He went to Haiti in 2008 because he wanted to give back to the children of the Caribbean.
Bannis said he is curious about the hundreds of children who left Haiti and wonders how they are healing and making out in their new lives in the United States. Yet he knows that it is important not to dwell on the situation of one particular child, but rather to focus on the next little one who may need help for a better life.
@Alas: Dear MR ALAS WHATON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE TO PROMOTE THE GOOD NAME OF DOMINICA THAN TO POST NEGATIVE COMMENTS ON PEOPLE WHOM YOU ENVY, REMEMBER ENVY IS A SIN
@??????:COULD NOT SAY IT BETTER MY SELF I WILL ALWAYS CONSIDER DA MY HOME NO MATTER WHERE I GO NOTHING CAN REPLACE DOMINICA IN MY HEART EXCEPT HEAVEN GOD BLESS ALL DOMINICAN’ S WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE
Something to shout about! May God Bless you Mr. Bannis. Congratulations on a job well done!
you taught me at school and i have never douted your capability you can only be one place at a time glad to know you could help the sufferers in haiti some of us will critisize but what did we do? so jah blessings with you and your family and strength and courage in all that you undertake
CASTLE BRUCE IS PROUD OF YOU . if you wish to return one day we will gladly welcome you with open arms cause you have done for others what we could not have done for them.
@Alas: alas you just had to say something negative. Come throw away that pride and congratulate the man. Not all of us can stay home. Pardner or Madame – Give the man his laurels. Is it a problen to see a brothrman and country man do something good under such difficult situation (crisis in Haiti) and not wish him well?
@love my country: Great job Mr. Bannis. Good news for a change. I remember Mr. Bannis as a teacher as the San Sauveur primary school. May God bless you as you continue the good work of serving humanity. Wow. Pope.
mr bannis i don’t know u but i’m very proud of u
may God bless you sir
@Alas: is people like u that r so narrow minded that bring dominicans down
my son is a pastor in paris france but before he was sent to france as a missionary pastor he spent 2yrs n the states preaching and all dominicans were proud of him because he always said that he was from the beautiful island of dominica even tho he was 3 yrs old when i took him from there
he has spent all his life between guadeloupe and saint martin but he was raised by my husband and myself to be pround of dominica because that is where we r from
he went to dominica while he was in Bible school in st thomas to look for his wife and now he is living in paris with her
so please don’t go around saying what has mister bannis done for dominica because no matter how long we r away(my son is now 30) we will always love our sweet dominica
y shouldn’t we?
i’m so proud of my country that i made sure that my kids even tho some were born in sxm speak with a dominican accent and tell everybody that they r from there
is people like u that reproach my kids and tell them stop talking dominican
so please give those of us that r away a lil break in our lives because u r in d/ca enjoying the beauty while some of us have to live in another man’s country and be reminded everyday that we r not from there
i will always love my lil country and will continue talking about it for the rest of my life
my daughter went to africa last year as a missionary and she was telling the people around her how much certain places look like her country dominica even tho the people knew she was from sxm
please enjoy my lil country to the fullest but give us a lil break man
that’s y i always come on dno to see the beautiful pics of my country
love u all take care of dominica and may God continue to bless all of you
To MR Bannis and all others like him coodoes to you all much respect every body s names cannot be mentioned Blessed!
Awesome news!!
Hats off to you Mr. Bannis I am indeed proud of your work! May God bless and keep you, may he lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.
@No Name 2: of course we are, we are producing the cream of the crop you know. pLEASE rest of da follow suit
Another Dominican making us proud.
My hat’s off to you my brudder.
See what we are capable of when we put our hearts into it?
Shine on Dominicans, shine on…..
We the Bannis family know how we can perform. We know how to fight battles and we know we must win . Congratulations cousin
Congrats…Castle Bruce is proud, I’m sure!
good job!
Good job man!!! It was time for some postive news!! We have to learn to look beyond ourselves whenever we can! Hope you continue to leave your mark.. and never lose your humility
The world need more selfless people like you Mr. Bannis. Well done!
Congratulations my brother! You have made a mark not only for yourself but for Dominica and Castle Bruce by extension.
That makes me proud to be DOMINICAN! Hats of to you Sir and well done. God bless you
It is so amazing when our people can leave our country and go elsewhere and make such a positive impact on other nations. Good job brother Pius Bannis and I’m sure there are many more dominicans out there like him making that significant difference.
Kudos to you, Pius. I always knew you were a dedicated “people person” as this story bears out. Hope you and your family are well. Much love from the Bronx.
Lesson … I must read the Headlines a little more.. LOL
Sorry I did not even notice the headline which state “Dominican …..” I just went straight into the article and read on.
Mr Bannis – Ode to you! I feel nice to know that you are from the Island of Dominica. I read the article and hoped by virtue of the second name – Bannis that you were actually from my beautiful country – Dominica. My hopes came true in the last but one paragraph and I feel elated that I shouted for joy “I know that! ” I know that what ever you have done it was a calling from the Most High and you are indeed a humble man to lay your talents for the betterment of the World. You being an Immigration Officer did not stop by just being the day to day usual stereotyped method. You moved out of the box and stood up and out in love.. Love for humanity showed at the most. The Heavenly Father will definitely bless you and continue what you are doing and most of all showing others that you can care even if you are in any position. Let your works and doing bring Glory to the Great I am.
People let us take a leaf from what this son of the soil has done and is still doing. In whatever field of work, you are do it for the Glory of Father. Let love shine through and on another note let us pray that all our leaders will lead in the way that will bring Glory. we all have to pray for this and we have to bind the works of the powers of darkeness who only wants to see ugly in our land. let us lift up and encourage when persons want to do their best. Mistakes will always happen but we are not perfect. Let us encourage when persons are trying and down with negative, Jealousy, envy, fighting. gossip, rumours and all the other ills that is destroying us in this country.
Discover you talents. We are all heroes in our own rights. Find it and develop together with love to the Glory of the Heavenly Father. Whatever we do let us dedicate to the Heavenly Father first.
Way to go!!! Great work!! Let’s see how many patriotic Dominicans with “best interest” will respond to this…
I’ve been logging on to this website for awhile and up until now have not been moved to comment. I would like to congratulate Mr. Pius “Pope” Bannis for the outstanding job that he did with the orphans during the Haitian crisis. I too left Dominica (Castle Bruce 40 years ago) and I knew “Pope” as well as his family before we left. It’s always a source of great pride to read about your fellow countryman in a positive light.
god bless your heart.
keep them coming we really need that ………………………..God is good ……………… Congratulations Sir.
Good job Mr. Bannis.
holla people i told you all all the smart people come from the east good job cuz
ALL THUMBS UP!!!…That’s a HERO!!!!…. So much one can do with the little supplies and resources that he has, Yet others moan and cry feeling helpless due to what they possess.
Do with what you’ve been blessed with, for no man can tell how much can be accomplished with the little that we have.
I LOVE THIS…..A genuine role model to the world at large and to top it off A DOMINICAN!!!
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO GUIDE, PROTECT AND BLESS YOU AND OTHERS TO DO MORE GOOD!
oh a happy story> GREAT!
Congratulations Mr Bannis on being a fantastic human being.
Another great article. Dominicans doing big things.
Great Job DNO for your coverage of that story Hats off to Mr.Bannis for his God Blessed deeds There are still great ppl on this earth May your blessing continue to multiply and God Grant you favors that you may continue his work ……..Also there are alot more peeps who do great things but prefer or manage to stay away from the Media and Lime light for personal reasons Hats off to them also Goodness never goes unrewarded …Again Great Job Mr.Bannis and also DNO this story is a breath of fresh air with all what has been going on in our Sweet Dominica . Thumbs up to you Guys
ppl like mr never do nothing for dominica, never come back / invest into something for d country. dey go america n forget where dey r from.
Hats off 2 u Mr Bannis,and keep up the good work. May the good Lord Bless and keep u may u find His divine Favour where ever u go. At least we still have some good Samaritans out dere, who looks out for our children.
This is very commendable indeed. It has reminded me the importance of being a humanitarian. If we stop being selfish, the world will be a much better place.
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!! Hat’s off to you sir.
Thanks DNO for this positive and uplifting bit of news.
Way to go Mr. Bannis. You make Castle Bruce and Dominica proud.
GREAT JOB MAN.
congrats mr bannis,great job all the best in the aid helping haiti and the wider world.