#BTEditorial – Haitians deserve better from the US

There has been no shortage of condemnation for the way the United States has been treating Haitian refugees. The United Nations, Caribbean-American legislators, US special envoy for Haiti and even a US Democratic Senator have criticised the US policy which still obtains under the Joe Biden administration.

We now lend our voice to an issue that should be a cause for concern, outrage and hurt for any right-thinking Caribbean person in this region or abroad.

The numerous graphic pictures of our Haitian brothers and sisters being subjected to inhumane treatment by the hands of United States authorities are an awful and despicable sight.

Images of US mounted police officers corralling migrants have evoked depressing comparisons to American slavery and the historical mistreatment of black people.

The Biden administration last Saturday began deporting thousands of Haitians who have gathered at the southern border. The migrants are being expelled under the US government’s Title 42 policy curtailing immigration that began under the Donald Trump administration.

More than 14,000 Haitians will be expelled from the United States in the coming weeks and we find it unconscionable that the Department of Homeland Security would seek to return them to a country in distress and turmoil.

What has disappointed many commentators is the fact that President Biden had promised a more humane approach to immigration than his Republican predecessor Trump.

What saddens us is that it appears as though the American President is not even listening to his own.

The UN, the global body tasked with “preserving world peace, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and harmonising the actions of nations” has spoken strongly about the fact that basic human rights were being eroded.

Earlier this week, Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, stressed that seeking asylum is “a fundamental human right”.

“We are calling for this right to be respected,” she said.

Another UN spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said: “We are seriously concerned by the fact that it appears that there has not been any individual assessment in the (Haiti) cases . . . maybe some of these people have not received the protection that they needed.”

That same day, US Senate leader Chuck Schumer urged  Biden to end mass deportations of Haitian migrants, describing the policy as a “hateful and xenophobic” hangover from Trump’s administration.

“I urge President Biden . . . to immediately put a stop to these expulsions, and to end this Title 42 policy at our southern border. We cannot continue these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that disregard our refugee laws,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

On Wednesday, Congresswoman Yvette D Clarke, who represents the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, New York, told the Caribbean Media Corporation that Caribbean-American legislators had intensified their outrage over the deportation of Haitians.

“My colleagues and I have repeatedly spoken out and penned numerous letters requesting the ceasing of targeted deportations of Haitian migrants,” the congresswoman told CMC. “I am calling for a humanitarian moratorium on these targeted deportations. Now, more than ever, we must reimagine the immigration system in a humane, just and fair manner.

“I am the daughter of immigrant parents from Jamaica and this is personal to me. I have dedicated my career to building an immigration system that lets people live without fear and gives immigrants — like my parents who sought a better life and to contribute to our nation — a fair opportunity to thrive.”

The latest action against this inhumanity came from US special envoy for Haiti, senior diplomat Daniel Foote, who has resigned in protest over the deportations.

Foote said the decision to return migrants fleeing an earthquake and political instability was “inhumane”. He said Haiti was a “collapsed state” that “simply cannot support the forced infusion of thousands of returned migrants lacking food, shelter, and money without additional, avoidable human tragedy”.

The former envoy criticised the US and other countries for interfering in the country’s politics.

“What our Haitian friends really want, and need, is the opportunity to chart their own course, without international puppeteering and favoured candidates but with genuine support for that course,” Foote said.

Haitians are seeking refuge after an earthquake devastated their country on August 14. They are the victims of political instability combined with multiple natural disasters but the United States and others who can lend a helping hand seem unwilling to do so.

Conversely, many international countries including the US, have pledged their commitment and support to thousands of Afghanis wanting to flee their man-made Taliban crisis which was magnified by America’s initial presence and subsequent exit on August 31.

This level of partiality must be frowned upon. Both are in dire need of help. Why is help so forthcoming for one set of nationals over the other? But more importantly, even if no help is offered why treat the Haitians so horrifically? Reports indicate that while waiting to be deported they have been in a makeshift camp in temperatures of 37 degrees C. They have not been given food or adequate sanitation. Why is this happening in 2021?

We demand better treatment for the Haitian people whose basic human rights ought not to be trampled upon by a country that projects itself as the bastion of democracy and ostensibly promotes liberty and justice for all.