U.S. HAS A HISTORY OF MISTREATING HAITIANS

The vast majority of Haitians coming to the shores of the United States flee Haiti because of a mix of external and internal factors. They include the lingering effects of the devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 220,000 people, injured more than 300,000 and displaced 1.5 million more, the July assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the presidential mansion and the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in August.

The external factors include decades of colonial foreign policy from the international community. In my opinion, several U.S. administrations, including the Biden administration, have supported demagogues and corrupt politicians in Haiti who are incapable of fulfilling the fundamental functions of a legitimate state. The situation has worsened for the 11.5 million Haitians of predominantly African descent who are living in extreme poverty.

I fled Haiti, my home country, in 2007 due to threats against my life and the life of my family members. The threats began due to the refusal to participate in organized crimes as a peace officer. When reflecting on the treatments and challenges I faced

Gaetan is co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Service and a graduate student in international affairs at UC San Diego. He lives in San Diego. during my case over a decade ago, I find it repugnant that the United States as the most advanced economy in the world has failed time and time again to establish an immigration system that treats people with dignity, grace and respect.

I am also thankful that organizations such as the Jewish Family Service exist because they allowed me to access resources, including lawyers, at no cost to help me win my asylum case. Moreover, I am proud to have been able to utilize the education I received from UC San Diego to make a difference in the life of others. In 2016, I and some of the most community-oriented individuals I know, including Jay Lamothe, Mariecarmelle St. Louis, Martine Jean, and Guerline Jozèf, co-founded the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance to support refugees. Professionally, I am an acting supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service, serving the American public. I believe the investment the U.S. made in me has allowed me to reach my fullest potential. Therefore, I can contribute to society in a meaningful way. That is the promise of America. It should be the goal of the U.S. government. And no one living in the U.S. should be excluded from benefiting from that promise. Not even asylum seekers from Haiti.

The United States has constantly treated Haitian migrants disproportionately poorly. As history professor and author Carl Lindskoog documented in The Washington Post in

2018, lawmakers and state elected officials responded with racist and xenophobic policies in the late 1970s when Haitians began to flee the brutal dictatorship of the Duvalier regime to seek safety and security in the United States. U.S. immigration officials disproportionately incarcerated Haitians, classifying them as economic migrants and denying them the right to receive asylum.

Then, in 1980, under the Carter administration, a stream of over 100,000 Cubans received favorable immigration protection to join family and sponsors in the U.S. while the vast majority of 15,000 Haitians remained in detention or were deported.

This pattern of exclusion continues. Many Haitians like myself laud the Biden administration’s swift commitment several weeks ago to resettling between 50,000 to 100,000 Afghan refugees by the end of 2021 after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. It is the right thing to do. But one cannot stop pointing out the disparities between the administration’s decision to devote energy and resources to treat the Afghans with humanity, compassion and respect, and its more recent response to the Haitian asylum seekers who face deportation and inhumane slave treatment. The appalling aspect is that there is broad consensus among the White section of America to welcome the Afghans. At the same time, the same group is enraged by over 15,000 refugees at the U.s.mexico border. The worst is the political establishment using the desperate Haitian refugees to maximize political capital.

President Joe Biden’s response — dismissing Haiti’s ongoing severe

humanitarian and political crisis and deporting thousands of Haitian asylum seekers without allowing them to present their case — is politically motivated. The administration sought to signal to the swing Republican voters and independents that Biden is tough on illegal immigration to reward his party with a larger share of votes in the 2022 midterm elections.

The U.S. Border Patrol agents riding horseback, dehumanizing black Haitian asylum seekers near Del Rio, Texas, heightened to a new level of U.S. human rights abuse. These acts remind us that the legacy of centuries of institutional racism against Black migrants is still with us. Biden’s response must be more than just calling the act “horrific.” He must immediately take concrete actions to pay forward the United States’ historical debt toward Haiti.

I and other Haitians call on the Biden administration to take the following actions:

Stop using the Trump era Title 42, a reference to part of a U.S. public health code, to disproportionately deport Black asylum seekers.

Immediately expand the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) to all Haitians currently living in the United States.

Return to the pretrump era parole system, allowing asylum seekers to safely enter the country to make their case before an immigration judge, consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The administration must afford Haitian asylum seekers the right to seek protection without the fear of being returned to a country where violent criminals will kill them.

Visit the Haitian Bridge Alliance at haitianbridge.org for more information on how to help Haitian refugees.