US Policy Toward Haitian Immigrants Is Part of a Long, Troubled History

Stunning photographs have emerged of Border Patrol officers on horseback charging towards Haitian immigrants in and across the border city of Del Rio, Texas. 1000’s of Haitians have come to our southern border as situations of their residence nation proceed to deteriorate following a devastating earthquake in August and the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July. Although the Biden administration acknowledged the horrific situations in Haiti because it prolonged Non permanent Protected Standing to Haitians in Could 2021, it has determined to take away 1000’s of Haitians from our southern border.

The administration’s remedy of Haitian migrants has obtained intensive criticism. But its actions are a continuation of a protracted historical past of mistreating Haitian migrants.

The biggest mass refugee disaster from Haiti in trendy historical past arose in 1991. A navy coup usurped the democratically-elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Following the coup, tens of 1000’s of Haitians fled the nation, usually on boats headed for america.

Initially, the U.S. Coast Guard turned 1000’s again to Haiti, usually to imprisonment or demise. A choose in Florida later dominated they might not be turned again with out the chance to hunt asylum. 1000’s of Haitian refugees have been then diverted to a now-infamous naval base to be held and processed—Guantanamo Bay.

1000’s of Haitians have been held at Guantanamo Bay all through the early Nineteen Nineties. In 2002, the U.S. authorities issued an govt order creating what turned the Migrant Operations Middle for detaining individuals who have been interdicted at sea—largely Haitian and Cuban nationals. The Biden administration issued a brand new request for contract providers to function this detention middle. Whereas the federal government has clarified that this detention middle is just used (per the chief order) for individuals detained whereas at sea, it’s indicative of the disparate remedy that disproportionately impacts Haitian migrants.

Advocates have traced the beginning of the coverage often called “metering” to a rise in Haitian migrants arriving in Tijuana on the U.S.-Mexican border in Could 2016. This coverage—began underneath the Obama administration and accelerated underneath the Trump administration—solely permits a sure variety of individuals a day to strategy a port of entry on our southern border.

The horrific abuses of Haitian migrants in Texas documented in current photos and video are solely the most recent in a protracted historical past of the disproportionate mistreatment of Haitian migrants making an attempt to hunt security in america.

This remedy can’t be disassociated from a easy truth: Haiti is the supply of the most important variety of Black migrants to america within the western hemisphere. Insurance policies that disproportionately have an effect on Haitian migrants are rooted in anti-Black racism. It’s too early to inform whether or not the outcry in opposition to this present spherical can have a long-lasting influence.

FILED UNDER: border patrol, Haiti