Biden’s Dangerous Haitian Expulsion Strategy

On September 18, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a “comprehensive strategy” to expel thousands of Haitian and other asylum-seeking families and adults who had crossed into the United States near a bridge in Del Rio, Texas – blocking many from access to the U.S. asylum system and fear screenings despite the requirements of U.S. law. Highly disturbing images and accounts from Del Rio reveal U.S. immigration officers, including mounted U.S. Border Patrol agents armed with cords used like whips, violently pushing Haitian adults and children back across the river into Mexico - many of whom were simply trying to return with food and water for their families. Already DHS has expelled hundreds of individuals by plane to Haiti, some in shackles and many without being told where they are being taken, while the country is amid twin humanitarian and political crises following a major earthquake in August 2021 and the assassination of the president in July 2021. The head of Haiti’s national migration office has asked the Biden administration for a “humanitarian moratorium” on the forced returns, citing “ongoing security issues” and warning that “the Haitian state is not really able to receive these deportees.”

*Read this full report issued by Haitian Bridge Alliance and Human Rights First HERE