FILE -
In this
Sept.
21,
2021,
file
photo,
migrants,
many
from
Haiti,
are seen
wading
between
the U.S.
and
Mexico
on the
Rio
Grande,
in Del
Rio,
Texas.
The
Border
Patrol's
treatment
of
Haitian
migrants,
they
say, is
just the
latest
in a
long
history
of
discriminatory
U.S.
policies
and of
indignities
faced by
Black
people,
sparking
new
anger
among
Haitian
Americans,
Black
immigrant
advocates
and
civil
rights
leaders.(AP
Photo/Julio
Cortez,
File) |
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A
migrant
woman
seeking
refuge
in the
U.S.,
reacts
as her
child
waits
with
U.S.
Border
Patrol
agents
on the
banks of
the Rio
Grande
river in
Del Rio,
Texas,
U.S., as
seen
from
Ciudad
Acuna,
Mexico
September
23,
2021.
(REUTERS/Daniel
Becerril) |
|
Haitians
see
history
of
racist
policies
in
migrant
treatment
By
AARON
MORRISON
and
ASTRID
GALVAN
apnews.com
The
images —
men on
horseback,
appearing
to use
reins as
whips to
corral
Haitian
asylum
seekers
trying
to cross
into the
U.S.
from
Mexico —
provoked
an
outcry.
But to
many
Haitians
and
Black
Americans,
they’re
merely
confirmation
of a
deeply
held
belief:
U.S.
immigration
policies,
they
say, are
and have
long
been
anti-Black.
The
Border
Patrol’s
treatment
of
Haitian
migrants,
they
say, is
just the
latest
in a
long
history
of
discriminatory
U.S.
policies
and of
indignities
faced by
Black
people,
sparking
new
anger
among
Haitian
Americans,
Black
immigrant
advocates
and
civil
rights
leaders.
They
point to
immigration
data
that
indicate
Haitians
and
other
Black
migrants
routinely
face
structural
barriers
to
legally
entering
or
living
in the
U.S. —
and
often
endure
disproportionate
contact
with the
American
criminal
legal
system
that can
jeopardize
their
residency
or
hasten
their
deportation.
Haitians,
in
particular,
are
granted
asylum
at the
lowest
rate of
any
nationality
with
consistently
high
numbers
of
asylum
seekers,
according
to an
analysis
of data
by The
Associated
Press.
“Black
immigrants
live at
the
intersection
of race
and
immigration
and, for
too
long,
have
fallen
through
the
cracks
of red
tape and
legal
loopholes,”
said
Yoliswa
Cele of
the
UndocuBlack
Network,
a
national
advocacy
organization
for
currently
and
formerly
undocumented
Black
people.
“Now
through
the
videos
capturing
the
abuses
on
Haitians
at the
border,
the
world
has now
seen for
itself
that all
migrants
seeking
a better
tomorrow
aren’t
treated
equal
when
skin
color is
involved.”
Between
2018 and
2021,
only
4.62% of
Haitian
asylum
seekers
were
granted
asylum
by the
U.S. —
the
lowest
rate
among 84
groups
for whom
data is
available.
Asylum
seekers
from the
Dominican
Republic,
which
shares
the
island
of
Hispaniola
with
Haiti,
have a
similarly
low rate
of
5.11%.
By
comparison,
four of
the five
top U.S.
asylum
applicants
are from
Latin
American
countries
— El
Salvador,
Guatemala,
Mexico
and
Honduras.
Their
acceptance
rates
range
from
6.21% to
14.12%.
Nicole
Phillips,
legal
director
for the
Haitian
Bridge
Alliance,
said
racism
has long
driven
the
American
government’s
treatment
of
Haitian
immigrants.
Phillips,
whose
organization
is on
the
ground
helping
Haitians
in
Texas,
says
this
dates
back to
the
early
1800s,
when
Haitian
slaves
revolted
and
gained
independence
from
France,
and has
continued
through
decades
of U.S.
intervention
and
occupation
in the
small
island
nation.
She
said the
U.S.,
threatened
by the
possibility
of its
own
slaves
revolting,
both
assisted
the
French
and
didn’t
recognize
Haitian
independence
for
nearly
six
decades.
The U.S.
also
loaned
money to
Haiti so
that it
could,
in
essence,
buy its
independence,
collecting
interest
payments
while
plunging
the
country
into
poverty
for
decades.
“This
mentality
and
stigma
against
Haitians
stems
all the
way back
to that
period,”
Phillips
said.
The
U.S.
violently
occupied
Haiti
from
1915 to
1934 and
backed
former
Haiti
dictator
Francois
Duvalier,
whose
oppressive
regime
resulted
in
30,000
deaths
and
drove
thousands
to flee.
While
the U.S.
long
treated
Cubans
with
compassion
—
largely
because
of
opposition
to the
Communist
regime —
the
administrations
of
George
H.W.
Bush and
Bill
Clinton
took a
hard
line on
Haitians.
And the
Trump
administration
ended
Temporary
Protected
Status
for
several
nationalities,
including
Haitians
and
Central
Americans.
Over
and
over,
the U.S.
has
passed
immigration
legislation
that
excluded
Black
immigrants
and
Haitians,
and
promoted
policies
that
unfairly
jeopardized
their
legal
status
in the
country,
advocates
said.
When
they
manage
to enter
the
U.S.,
Black
immigrants
say they
contend
with
systemic
racism
in the
American
criminal
legal
system
and
brutality
of U.S.
policing
that has
been
endemic
for
people
from
across
the
African
diaspora.
The
Black
Alliance
for Just
Immigration,
a
national
racial
justice
and
immigrant
rights
group,
largely
defines
Black
immigrants
as
people
from
nations
in
Africa
and the
Caribbean.
By that
definition,
AP’s
analysis
of 2019
Department
of
Homeland
Security
data
found
66%
Black
immigrants
deported
from the
U.S were
removed
based on
criminal
grounds,
as
opposed
to 43%
of all
immigrants.
Nana
Gyamfi,
BAJI’s
executive
director,
said
crimes
of moral
turpitude,
including
petty
theft or
turnstile
jumping,
have
been
used as
partial
justification
for
denying
Black
immigrants
legal
status.
“We have
people
getting
deported
because
of train
fare,”
she
said.
Leaders
within
the
Movement
for
Black
Lives, a
national
coalition
of
Black-led
racial
justice
and
civil
rights
organizations,
have
pointed
to the
treatment
of
Haitians
at the
border
as
justification
for
their
broader
demands
for
defunding
law
enforcement
agencies
in the
U.S.
Last
year,
following
the
murder
of
George
Floyd,
the
coalition
proposed
sweeping
federal
legislation
known as
the
BREATHE
Act,
which
includes
calls to
end
immigration
detention,
stop
deportations
due to
contact
with the
criminal
legal
system,
and
ensure
due
process
within
the
immigration
court
system.
“A
lot of
times in
the
immigration
debate,
Black
people
are
erased
and
Black
immigrants
are
erased
from the
conversation,”
said
Amara
Enyia, a
policy
researcher
for the
Movement
for
Black
Lives.
Ahead of
a
Thursday
tour of
the
migrant
encampment
in
Texas,
civil
rights
leaders
called
for an
investigation
into the
treatment
of Black
migrants
at the
border
and for
an
immediate
end to
the
deportation
of Black
asylum
seekers.
The
camp is
“a
catastrophic
and
human
disgrace,”
the Rev.
Al
Sharpton
said
after an
hourlong
tour
with
several
Black
American
leaders
in Del
Rio. “We
will
keep
coming
back, as
long as
is
necessary.”
At
the
border
and in
Port-au-Prince,
Haiti,
where
hundreds
had
already
been
sent on
flights
from the
U.S.,
Haitians
said
there
was no
doubt
that
race
played a
major
part in
their
mistreatment.
“They
are
grabbing
people,
they
bother
us,
especially
Haitians
because
they
identify
us by
skin,”
said
Jean
Claudio
Charles
who,
with his
wife and
year-old
son, had
been
staying
in an
encampment
on the
Mexico
side
near
Texas
out of
fear of
arrest
and
deportation
to
Haiti.
Claude
Magnolie,
a
Haitian
citizen
removed
from the
U.S.
this
week,
said he
didn’t
see
Border
Patrol
agents
treating
migrants
of other
nationalities
the way
he and
others
were
treated:
“This is
discrimination,
that is
how I
call it,
they are
treating
us very
badly.”
And
in
Miami,
immigrant
rights
advocate
Francesca
Menes
couldn’t
believe
her eyes
as she
watched
images
of the
asylum
seekers
being
corralled
by men
on
horseback.
“My
family
is under
that
bridge,”
Menes
said,
referring
to a
cousin,
his wife
and
their
newborn
who
recently
met up
in a
small
border
town in
Texas.
It took
Menes’s
cousin
two
months
to make
the trek
from
Chile,
where he
had been
living
with his
brothers
for
three
years to
escape
Haiti’s
political
tumult,
violence
and
devastation.
“It
made me
sick,”
Menes
said.
“This
didn’t
happen
with
unaccompanied
minors.
You
didn’t
see
people
riding
on
horseback,
basically
herding
people
like
they
were
cattle,
like
they
were
animals.”
Menes’
outrage
has only
grown,
as have
her
fears
for her
family.
When she
overheard
her
mother
on the
phone
with
family
members
this
week,
Menes
said she
wanted
nothing
more
than to
tell
them to
return
to
Chile.
“We’ve
actually
tried to
discourage
our
families,”
she
said.
“People
are
looking
for a
better
life.
And we
try to
kind of
ground
our
families:
Do you
know
what it
means to
be Black
in
America?”
____
AP
staffers
Maria
Verza in
Ciudad
Acuña,
Mexico,
Fernando
Gonzalez
in
Port-au-Prince,
Haiti,
Jasen Lo
in
Chicago
and
Elliot
Spagat
from San
Diego
contributed.
Morrison
reported
from New
York
City.
Galvan
reported
from
Phoenix.
Both are
members
of the
AP’s
Race and
Ethnicity
team.
Follow
Galvan
on
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/astridgalvan.
Follow
Morrison
on
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.
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