Dramatic Images of Haitians Deported from the United States | Joe Biden’s government has started mass evictions

The massive expulsions of Haitian migrants by the United States have raised concern at the UN, which has warned that people with serious asylum claims could be at risk. The US government has begun deporting hundreds of thousands of Haitians who arrived at the US-Mexico border after a dangerous journey from South America.

Express evictions

Some 15,000 Haitians who arrived in the border town of Del Rio, in the state of Texas, began to be deported by Washington. The migrants have been stranded for days under the Rio Grande bridge that separates Mexico from the United States. Many have come from Chile or Brazil, where they have resided in recent years.

According to US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, los haitianos recibieron información errónea de que podían quedarse en EE.UU. como refugiados bajo el “Estatuto de Protección Temporal” (TPS) debated at the crisis política tras el asesinato de Jovenel Moise in principios de julio y el terremoto that devastated al país in August. TPS reached Haitians who remained in the United States after the 2010 earthquake in which 200,000 people died in the Caribbean country. After the assassination of Moise The TPS was extended to Haitians who were on American soil before July 29, but did not reach those who arrived after that date.

Equestrian patrols

“We reiterated that our borders are not open and that people should not take this dangerous journey.”added. “If you enter the United States illegally, you will be returned”Mayorkas pointed out at a press conference from the border town. The official arrived in Del Río after controversy erupted when footage of border guards crossing the border on horseback and bringing back Haitian migrants was released. One of the photos taken by AFP photojournalist Paul Ratje shows a mounted policeman grabbing a man by the shirt.

“The situation was tense and the migrants started running around them (…) Many started running to try to escape the riders and one of the officers grabbed a man by the shirt and made him spin around while the horse I was running in was jogging circles, ”Ratje said of one of the photos.

Equestrian patrols have been deployed in recent days near the Rio Grande where thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, were camping. as he told the media head of the border patrol, Raúl Ortiz. “I asked them to find out if any people were in danger and to gather information on the smugglers.”added. “Controlling a horse in a river is difficultWhite House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the event ‘horrific’. “I don’t have the full context, but I can’t imagine in what context that would be appropriate.”he said at a press conference.

Families expelled

At least three flights have left Texas to land in the capital Port-au-Prince. About half of the more than 500 migrants deported by the United States were under the age of five and were born outside Haiti. Before crossing the Rio Grande, Haitians had resided for several years in Chile and Brazil, where they arrived between 2016 and 2017.

Entire families have traveled to Mexico to seek asylum in the United States, as in the case of Jeanne, who spoke on condition of anonymity. She, her husband and their three-year-old son Mael, who has a Chilean passport, traveled for two months to reach Del Río and spent around $ 10,000. “In Santiago I had a small business, my husband worked. We managed to save money: that’s what allowed us to travel to the United States”, reports.

“It’s an inexplicable thing. No one can really express what this horror is,” Jeanne said. “If I had known what I was going through, I would never have made this trip”, lament. The couple said they spent $ 7,000 to get to Mexico and another 2,000 to reach the Texas border.. Jeanne left her country after completing her studies in business administration in 2016. “If I had been able to find a job, I would never have left. Now the situation in the country has deteriorated considerably, ”she said.

“Biden knows what he’s doing”

Hundreds of Haitians were frustrated after their deportation and after spending thousands of dollars to reach the United States. “Biden knows what he’s doing, but he doesn’t care. He treats us and our children worse than beasts.”shouted a woman from the Port-au-Prince terminal. Another of the expelled migrants spoke of the conditions in the center managed by the US Immigration Agency after crossing the Rio Grande.

“We didn’t have beds to sleep on, we slept with only a thin sheet of plastic to cover us, in an overly air-conditioned space. And we slept on the concrete floor.”said Garry Momplaisir, 26, who spent five days at the site. “We could not take a shower. There was a toilet but there was no place to wash.”, adds Momplaisir, expelled with his wife and five-year-old daughter.

Trumpist policies

For its part, Democratic Party Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schummer urged President Joe Biden to end mass deportations of Haitian migrants, a policy he warned had “loathsome and xenophobic” attitudes similar to those seen under the administration of former Republican President Donald Trump.

“I urge President Biden … to immediately end these deportations and end this Title 42 policy on our southern border. We cannot continue with these hateful and xenophobic Trump policies that ignore our refugee laws . “Schumer told the full Senate. The U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection announced that Most migrants will be deported under Title 42, a government policy that restricts immigration due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have all seen these horrific images coming from our southern border, with Haitian asylum seekers, simply seeking to escape tyranny. (…) to be greeted at our doors with unimaginable (indignity), “Schumer added.” The images of Haitian migrants beaten with whips and other forms of physical violence are totally unacceptable. This behavior needs to be corrected and we need to be held accountable. The images turn the stomach upside down “, Held.

From the UN, they joined the concern about mass evictions. “We are seriously concerned that there appears to have been no individual assessment in the (Haiti) cases,” said spokesperson for the international organization, Marta Hurtado. “Maybe some of these people did not receive the protection they needed”He added and stressed that all asylum seekers have the right to have their claims examined.