| New York, NY—Earlier this week, horrific photos of US Customs and Border Protection agents using their horse's reins as whips while stopping Haitian migrants from crossing the Rio Grande River near the Del Rio-Acuna Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, sparked widespread outrage. The images come amid news of the Biden administration's use of a Trump-era policy change to ignore immigration law and deport Haitian asylum seekers en masse. In the coming weeks, the Biden administration is planning to deport roughly 14,000 Haitian families when Haiti is experiencing destabilizing political violence and still recovering from a massive earthquake that caused widespread destruction. Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director, New York Immigration Coalition:
“The Border Patrol’s inhumane and shameful actions against Black migrants seeking safety should enrage all Americans. But their actions are not happening in a vacuum. Unfortunately, the horrifying scenes at the border are symptomatic of the heartless asylum policies of the Biden administration, which is doing little to differentiate its border policies from that of its predecessor. In fact, this White House appears to be on track to build upon the previous occupants' repellant legacy by executing the largest mass expulsion of asylum seekers in recent history. Deporting people seeking refuge back to a country facing multiple humanitarian and environmental crises amounts to a death sentence. We stand with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his demand for President Biden to immediately halt the deportation flights of Haitian refugees and act swiftly to reign in the longstanding abusive actions of his Border Patrol. ” |
