TAMPA, Fla. — Ongoing violence and political unrest continue to plague Haiti.
The country is still facing attacks from gangs with an unclear transition of power after its prime minister agreed to step down.
U.S. Marines are being deployed to the island to protect the U.S. embassy. At the same time, Project DYNAMO is planning its latest mission there with the goal of rescuing stranded Americans.
Criminal gangs are more powerful now that Haiti's state security forces have attacked prisons and the airport serving the country's capital, forcing businesses and schools to close and driving an estimated 15,000 people from their homes in Port-au-Prince, reported CBS News.
A Tampa Bay woman worried for her family and loved ones wishes Haiti could just be free from the crisis.
"Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I'm here at work or I'm doing something, but my mind is somewhere else," Laisse Oscar said.
Oscar helps run Kreyol Delight in Tampa and Valrico, a local Haitian restaurant.
She and her family fled from unrest in the early 1990s after its president was forced out of power. Violence and unrest plagued the country then, too.
A 2004 Washington Post article reported thousands of women became victims of sexual violence prompting denouncements from human rights organizations.
Now, her heart breaks for the people caught in the conflict today, some of whom include her family. It's a situation she said feels much worse than in the past.
"I'm hurting and at the same time, I'm stressed and feel like your hands are tied because you can't help all of them," she said.
Oscar said her sister, who is near Port-au-Prince, where the violence is most prominent, has cancer and can't safely get to a doctor.
One man in Port-au-Prince, who wishes not to be identified out of safety, said those who are poor are being impacted the most.
"They really are the one, the victims, of this nonsense right now. They are the one having to move. They are the ones getting shot. They are the ones getting killed," he said.
Laisse wishes her home country could be free from the crisis but she refuses to lose hope.
"If we lose hope, we agree to lose the fight and we don't lose the fight," he said.
The U.S. plans to deploy an anti-terrorism team to the U.S. embassy.
In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is deploying the state guard to the Keys to prevent what he believes could be a potential influx of migrants from Haiti.