John,
When we say: Black lives matter, we mean ALL Black lives. Including Haitian asylum seekers at the border.
And yet, John, this past week, we were reminded once again just how deeply ingrained anti-Blackness is in the institutions upon which the nation relies.
We don’t need to show you the images that surfaced from the US-Mexico border of white Border Patrol officers on horses chasing, yelling, and whipping Haitian asylum seekers to tell you how viscerally it conjures this country's not so distant past; visions of violent slave patrols and public lynchings reimagined by modern-day henchmen.
Haitian asylum seekers who have for weeks and months been fleeing toward what they thought was safety, were terrorized, abused, and then deported. Others are being sent to Guantanamo Bay, or back to Mexico where organized crime and collaborators in Mexican security forces routinely prey on migrants - especially Haitians, who are particularly vulnerable because of their skin color.
John, it’s time to put an end to anti-Black immigration practices. Seeking asylum is a legal and human right, fundamental to maintaining democracy. It must extend to Black people
sign our petition & demand biden protects black migrants today
John, while on the campaign trail, Biden made promises to the Haitian community to have more fair immigration policies. And yet he may soon be responsible for carrying out the largest mass expulsion of would-be asylum-seekers in recent American history.
Thousands of people, including families and children, will be expelled to Haiti - a country the Administration itself has described as teetering on the brink of collapse, which we know is a result of centuries of imperialism and foreign intervention intent on destabilizing the first Black republic.
In just the past two and a half months alone, Haiti has seen its president assassinated and weathered a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake, all in the middle of a pandemic.
John, it would be unconscionable to send people back to Haiti.
Biden promised us a more humanitarian approach to immigration AND a commitment to racial justice. We demand the Administration follows through on its promises by:
- Stopping deportations to Haiti
- Granting humanitarian parole to thousands of Black asylum seekers and processing their claims without further delay
- Conducting a thorough investigation into the acts of Border Patrol agents in Del Rio and anti-Black practices throughout the agency
- Halting the treatment we witnessed, and instead employing a humanitarian approach to immigration
add your name to our demands & affirm that all black lives matter
John, make no mistake, what’s happening at the border right now is an extension of white supremacy in the United States.
Every arm of our country’s incarceration and deportation machine bears down on and disrupts Black people and communities.
For decades, Black migrants have faced disproportionate rates of detention and deportation and abuse like solitary confinement within detention centers.
The message we’re being told once in again is: Black people are unwelcome in the United States, and are subject to policing and abuse.
From police to immigration, we cannot and will not tolerate anti-Blackness.
Immigration is a Black issue. And we must:
protect black migrants
Until Justice is Real,
Scott, Erika, Rashad, Arisha, Malachi, Megan, Ernie, Palika, Ariel, Madison, Trevor, Erick, Ana, Kristiana, McKayla and the Color Of Change team
