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Washington DC – U.S. human rights groups criticized the Biden administration for planning to expel about 12,000 Haitian immigrants and asylum seekers After crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, they camped under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (Alejandro Mayorkas) said on Monday that 6,500 immigrants and asylum-seekers have been detained before processing and leaving the United States.On Sunday, the first flights with immigrants Sign in In Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
“This is totally unreasonable,” Steven Forrest, the immigration policy coordinator at the American Institute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti, told Al Jazeera. “Given the conditions there, Haiti cannot handle the people in Haiti right now. It cannot support these people.”
The United States recognized in May the potential dangers that Haitian immigrants might face if they are deported back to their country [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]Pictures from the weekend showed hundreds of Haitian immigrants trekking along the waist-deep Rio Grande River while holding their belongings over their heads to the United States, which put pressure on the Biden administration to reconsider its immigration policy.
The Department of Homeland Security says the vast majority of immigrants will be deported Heading 42, A Trump-era health order that uses the coronavirus pandemic as a reason for the rapid deportation of people seeking asylum at the U.S. border.
“If you come to the United States illegally, you will be deported,” Majorcas said at a press conference in Del Rio on Monday, adding that the United States will conduct up to three deportation flights a day. “Your journey will not be successful, and you will endanger the lives of you and your family.”
Rights groups in the past few months have Blasting heading 42 Inhumane, without scientific basis, violating the United States’ own immigration laws-they have been calling on US President Joe Biden Reverse policy Since he took office in January.
“They should stop deportation,” said Alix Desulme, a Haitian who is a member of the North Miami City Council, where there is a large Haitian community. “Before this happened, it was a way of crying,” De Sulm told Al Jazeera, referring to the planned deportation from the Texas-Mexico border camp, “and the need to repeal Article 42.”
Political and humanitarian crisis
For Haiti, the timing of deportation couldn’t be worse.
President of Haiti Jovenel Moise Assassinated In July, a country that was already dealing with political turmoil was pushed into a deeper level of uncertainty.One month later, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake Being hit, Killing more than 2,000 people and destroying the southern part of the Caribbean island.
Even before these incidents, the United States had recognized the potential dangers that Haitian immigrants might face if they were deported to their country.
On May 22, the Biden administration announced an 18-month Temporary Protection State (TPS) Haitians, protect them from deportation. But the measure only applies to people who were in the United States before July 29.
Many Haitian immigrants return to Mexico for fear of being deported by the U.S. [Felix Marquez/AP Photo]Majorcas said in a statement at the time: “Haiti is currently facing serious security problems, social unrest, increased human rights violations, severe poverty and lack of basic resources, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these problems. “
Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry Said On Saturday, he was very concerned about the “extremely difficult situation” of Haitians living on the US-Mexico border, but said that Haiti will support them after they return to the country.
At a press conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also stated that the U.S. government has “a series of planning options and financial support” to help Haitian nationals and Haitian authorities, but did not elaborate further.
‘Nothing to go back’
Nicole Phillips, the legal director of the Haiti Bridge Alliance, another US-based support and advocacy organization, said the situation in Haiti has gotten worse since the TPS designation.
Hundreds of thousands of people still have no housing in the south of the country and have almost no access to drinking water after the epidemic. Recent earthquakePhillips explained.
The political situation has also become more turbulent Gang The top prosecutor who controls key areas and the country-since then Be fired -Last week Ask The judge investigating the murder of Moise accused Prime Minister Henry of being involved in the assassination.
Phillips told Al Jazeera: “Many migrants at these borders, their families were killed in the earthquake, and other people’s houses collapsed, so they actually have nothing to go back. No one even went to the airport to pick them up.”
On September 18, some Haitian immigrants used the dam to enter the United States from Mexico [Eric Gay/AP Photo]She added that many people have fled Haiti many years ago and have been living in South America or Waiting for months or even years in Mexico Have the opportunity to apply for asylum in the United States.
Immigration at the US-Mexico border has always been a major political challenge facing the Biden administration.
Last month, more than 200,000 Most Central American immigrants and asylum seekers cross the border into the United States. The vast majority of people were deported back to Mexico under Article 42, but senior Republican leaders accused Biden of not taking enough measures to prevent people from coming.
At the same time, immigration advocates say that thousands of Haitians who remain under the bridge are enduring the heat and have little access to food, water and sanitation. Many others have returned to Mexico, worried about being deported.
“The whole message is deterrence,” Forest said. “Your idea of sacrificing human beings to send information is obscene, it won’t work.”
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