Haitians see history of racist policies in migrant treatment – Press Telegram

AARON MORRISON, ASTRID GALVAN, JASEN LO

Protests were sparked by a picture of a man riding a long-reined horse and clutching Haiti’s asylum seekers while traveling from Mexico to the United States. But for many Haitians and black Americans, they are just an affirmation of deeply ingrained beliefs.

According to them, US immigration policy has been anti-black and has long been anti-black.

The treatment of Haitian immigrants by border patrols is the latest in the long history of US discrimination policies and resentment facing blacks, and is new among Haitian Americans, black immigrant advocates, and citizenship leaders. They say they cause a lot of trouble.

They point to immigration data showing that Haitians and other black immigrants routinely face structural barriers to legally entering or living in the United States.

According to data analysis by the Associated Press, Haitians in particular have the lowest rate of asylum of any nationality and the number of asylum seekers has remained consistently high.

“Black immigrants live at the crossroads of race and immigrant and have long bridged the gap between bureaucratic formalism and legal loopholes,” said Yoliswa Cele, Narrative and Media Director of Undocu Black Network. A previously undocumented black man.

“With a video about the mistreatment of Haitians at the border, the world is now realizing that not all migrants seeking a better future are treated equally when it comes to skin color. Increase.”

Between 2018 and 2021, only 4.62% of Haiti’s asylum seekers received asylum from the United States. This is the lowest percentage of the 84 groups for which data are available. Asylum seekers from the Dominican Republic who share Hispaniola with Haiti also have a low rate of 5.11%.

In comparison, four of the five largest US asylum seekers come from Latin American countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras). Their acceptance rates range from 6.21% to 14.12%.

Nicole Phillips, director of legal affairs for the Haiti Bridge Alliance, said racism has long promoted the treatment of Haitian immigrants by the US government.

Phillips, whose organization supports Haitians in Texas, dates back to the early 19th century when Haitian slaves rebelled and gained independence from France, with decades of US intervention in a small island nation. It is said that it continued during the occupation.

She said that the United States, threatened by the possible rebellion of its slaves, supported the French and had not allowed Haiti’s independence for nearly 60 years. The United States also lent Haiti money to essentially buy its independence and collect interest payments while Haiti lived in poverty for decades.

“That spirit and stigma for Haitians comes from that time,” said Phillips.

The United States occupied Haiti by force from 1915 to 1934 and supported the former Haiti dictator François Duvalier. The repressive regime killed 30,000 people and thousands fled.

Although the United States has long treated Cubans with compassion (mainly because of opposition to the communist regime), the regimes of George HW Bush and Bill Clinton have shown strong attitudes toward Haitians. And the Trump administration has ended the temporary protection of multiple nationalities, including Haitians and Central Americans.

According to supporters, the United States has repeatedly enacted immigration laws that exclude black immigrants and Haitians and promoted policies that unfairly threaten their legal status in the country.

When they manage to enter the United States, black immigrants say they face systematic racism in the US criminal justice system and the brutality of US police force common to people across the African diaspora. ..

The Black Immigration Alliance, a national group for racial justice and immigration rights, defines black immigrants primarily as people from Africa and the Caribbean. By definition, an AP analysis of Homeland Security data in 2019 found that 66% of black migrants deported from the United States were for criminal reasons as opposed to 43% of all migrants. I noticed that it was deleted.

BAJI Executive Secretary Nana Gyamfi said moral turmoil such as minor theft and turnstile ticket jumping have been used in part as justifications for denying the legal status of black migrants. Rice field. “Some people are being deported because of train fares,” she said.

Leaders of the Black Life movement, a national coalition of black-led racial justice and civil rights groups, have made widespread calls for US law enforcement agencies to fund Haitians on the border. Given as justification.

After the police murder of George Floyd last year, the coalition ended detention, halted deportation through contact with the criminal justice system and ensured due process within the immigration court. Proposed a radical federal law known as the. System.

“In immigration debates, blacks are often wiped out and black immigrants from the talks,” said Amara Enia, political researcher with the Black Life Movement.

Before touring the Texas migrant camp on Thursday, civil rights activists investigated the treatment of black immigrants at the border and called for an immediate end to the deportation of black asylum seekers.

The camp was “catastrophic and human shame,” said Rev. Al Sharpton after an hour-long tour of Del Rio with several black American guides. “We will come back as long as it is necessary.”

At the border and in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, hundreds had already flown in from the US, but Haitians said there was no doubt that race played a large role in their abuse.

“You catch the people. They take care of it because they identify us, especially Haitians, by skin, ”said the Mexican team near Texas, together with his wife and one-year-old son, in horror. Jan Claudio Charles, who was in the camp, said. Arrest and deportation to Haiti.

Haitian Claude Magnoly, who immigrated from the United States this week, said he had never seen border guards treat immigrants of other nationalities the same as he or anyone else. We are very terrible. “

And in Miami, immigrant rights advocate Franceska Menes couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the picture of an asylum seeker riding a horse and surrounded by a man.

“My family is under the bridge,” Menes said, referring to his cousin, wife, and newborn baby I recently met in a small border town in Texas. It took Menes’ cousin two months to migrate from Chile. He lived in Chile with his brother for three years to escape Haiti’s political turmoil, violence and devastation.

“It made me sick,” said Menes. “That did not happen to unaccompanied minors. I haven’t seen anyone on a horse. Basically, they grazed people like cows like animals. . “

Menes’ anger has just grown, as has his fear of his family. When she spoke to her mother on the phone with her family this week, Menes said all she wanted was to tell them to return to Chile.

“We actually tried to discourage the family,” she said. “People want a better life, and we try to put our families on some kind of footing. Do you know what it means to be black in America? “

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AP employees Maria Verza from Ciudad Real Madrid, Mexico, Pierre Luxama from Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Elliott Spagat from San Diego contributed to this. Lo reported from Chicago. Morrison reported from New York City. Galvan answered from Phoenix. Morrison and Galvan are members of the AP Racial and Ethnic Team. Follow Galvan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/astridgalvan. Follow Morrison on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

Haitians See the History of Racist Policies in the Treatment of Migrants – Press Telegram Source link Haitians See the History of Racist Policies in the Treatment of Migrants – Press Telegram