By: Staff Writer
September 24, 2021
A Haitian political activist is calling out the Biden administration on its treatment of Haitian nationals now piling up at the US Southern border between Texas and Mexico.
Jude Elie, president of political action group Sove Lone, told Caribbean Magazine Plus: “What we are seeing in the U.S., and the whole world are seeing, are clear violations of human rights by border patrol agents’ actions. U.S. border agents chasing our fellow Haitians on horseback is an outrage and we demand accountability.”
Thousands of Haitian immigrants encamped at Del Rio, Texas, after entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande are awaiting either deportation from U.S. authorities or deciding to stay put and seek asylum.
Mr Elie added: “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the images “horrific”, “unacceptable” and “inappropriate”, and we demand full investigation by D.H.S. and Congress. Rounding up our brothers and sisters on horseback with whips, as if they were cattle, and the actions taken against our fellow Haitians, awaiting to open asylum claims, are absolutely unacceptable, cruel, inhumane and a violation of domestic and international law.”
Many of those migrants, experts say, were likely already in Central America, due to the 2010 Haitian earthquake having displaced them from Haiti. This along with a dysfunctional government and state institutions prompted a steady flow of out-migration for more than a decade.
Even as the Biden administration makes progress toward dispersing the large group of mostly Haitian nationals gathered in Del Rio, Texas, government officials are facing internal divisions over how the migrants have been treated.
“The U.S. government, and the Department of Homeland Security in particular, must issue clear directive on how to humanely process asylum seekers; nothing justifies violence against migrants attempting to seek asylum in the U.S,” said Mr Elie
He added: “Furthermore, the deportation/expulsion of our fellow Haitians to a country that has been devastated by the 2010 earthquake, the recent presidential assassination and another recent earthquake has left the nation’s economy and government in dire conditions. These actions by the U.S. are ‘inhumane’ and ‘criminal’.
“I vehemently disagree with the inhumane treatment of our fellow Haitians stuck at the Mexico-USA border.”
Reported by NBC news, the Department of Homeland Security is looking to create a contractor run facility to house the Haitian migrants at their Guantanamo Bay, Cuba facilities at a portion of the facility that is unused.
The DHS is also now looking for guards that are fluent in Creole to help man the facility.
The records, reported by NBC however, provided no indication that the Biden administration is planning to transfer migrants from the southern border to Guantánamo Bay. In the recent past, migrants picked up at sea have been housed there for short periods.
