I would go so far as to be paid to leave their businesses and homes. I read an article where a Haitian who stayed behind said most of the businesses have closed up to trek to the US.

Now why would someone close up their business unless they were paid to do so. I could understand someone who is destitute but if I have a business and home established, I am not going to want to disrupt that for nothing, especially if there was a chance that I would be turned away.

They had to have been given money and a promise that they were going to get in this country to uproot themselves.