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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has been denounced as a ‘rogue agency’ after new allegations of assaults on asylum seekers emerged, and deportations of African and Caribbean migrants continued in defiance of the orders of the Biden administration.
Joe Biden unveiled his immigration program on Tuesday and his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has been confirmed by the Senate, but continued expulsions suggest the White House Biden still does not have full control over Ice, who faces multiple allegations of human rights violations and allegations. that it has disproportionately targeted black migrants.
A coalition of immigrant rights groups released affidavits of Cameroonian asylum seekers who they said had been tortured by being forced to approve their own deportations. Asylum seekers said they were forced to descend to the ground and had their fingers inked and pressed over deportation documents they refused to sign.
An ice plane deporting Cameroonian, Angolan, Congolese and other African migrants is expected to leave Louisiana on Wednesday, despite an order from the incoming Biden administration for a 100-day suspension of deportation flights.
A Trump-appointed Texas judge blocked the Biden moratorium last week, approving a challenge from state attorney general Ken Paxton, who was instrumental in the attempt to overturn the election result.
However, the judge did not block guidelines set by Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske, which went into effect on Monday and stipulated that deportations should be limited to suspected terrorists, convicted felons seen as ” threat to public safety ”, and migrants who arrived after November 1 last year.
Ice carried out a deportation flight to Haiti on Tuesday morning, carrying people who did not meet any of these criteria. One of the deportees on this flight was Paul Pierrilus, a 40-year-old financial consultant from New York State, who had never been to Haiti and is not a Haitian citizen, according to the the country’s ambassador to Washington. Ambassador Bocchit Edmond told campaigners he was surprised by the eviction but did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Pierrilus was kidnapped from a deportation flight on January 19 at the last moment after the intervention of his local congressman, Mondaire Jones. But despite this temporary reprieve, he was driven early Tuesday to an airfield in Alexandria, Louisiana, and boarded a plane for Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital.
“There was nothing we could do to stop it,” said Jones, the Democratic Representative for New York’s 17th District. “Unfortunately, Paul’s story is not uncommon. Black immigrants have been disproportionately targeted and deported by our racist and inhumane immigration system, especially in recent weeks.
Jones told The Guardian: “Ice is a rogue agency that needs to be brought to the fore. There is no world in which an agency under the control of the chief executive should continue to deport people after the President of the United States signs an executive order ending deportations for 100 days.
The National Security Council did not respond to questions about other attempts to stop ice flights. The State Department referred the requests to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS did not respond.
On Monday, a coalition of migrant rights groups – Freedom for Immigrants, Al Otro Lado and Advocates for Immigrants Rights – presented new allegations to DHS of what they described as torture of Cameroonian asylum seekers.
One of them, identified by the initials HT, described being taken to a room with dark windows on January 14 at the Winn Correctional Center, where he was coerced by officers from Ice to put his fingerprint on a document instead of a signature, waiving his right to further legal proceedings before expulsion.
“I tried to stand up because of the force they were using on me, and they tripped me up,” HT said. “I fell on the ground; I kept my hands under my body. I held my hands tight at waist level so they couldn’t get them. Five of the ice officers and one of the officers in green … joined them. They rushed me and said I had to give them my finger for the fingerprint.
HT’s statement continued, “As one pressed my neck with their hands, the other came in front of me, pulling my head up from above, straightening my neck so that they could easily remove me. One is mounted on my back. I was having a hard time breathing. This happened for more than two minutes. I was out of breath. I told them, “Please I can’t breathe.” I asked them to release me. They said they didn’t care; what they need is my fingerprint.
A spokesperson for Ice said it would not be possible to respond to the allegations by the end of Tuesday. The agency had previously been accused of using torture to force detainees to sign deportation waivers in October.
Most, if not all, of the Cameroonians on Wednesday’s scheduled flight are English speakers from the west and south of the country, who fear imprisonment, torture or death on return amid a brutal civil conflict between the government and the English-speaking separatists.
Martha, the sister of one of the Cameroonian deportees, identified only as NF for security reasons, said they were the only surviving members of their family, after their brothers were killed by government security forces for membership of a non-violent organization. , the National Council of Southern Cameroon.
“He will certainly be in jail for a very long time. I’m not coming home so I can buy him bribes, which is the only way out, ”said Martha, who arrived in the United States before her brother and was granted asylum. .
“That’s why I’m really shaking right now, because I don’t know what’s going to happen when he’s imprisoned. There were people who went first [Ice deportation] robbery in October and they are still in jail.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said on Tuesday: “Ice is speeding up pending flights for many of these asylum seekers who have escaped torture and death in their home countries, only to be returned in imminent danger without a fair or full examination of their asylum claims. ”
He added: “This is unacceptable and goes against our values as a nation. The ice must stop these flights immediately.
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