Oxfam expressed shock over the treatment of Haitian asylum-seekers in Del Rio, Texas and the decision to expel them under Title 42. Oxfam called for an immediate and independent investigation into the actions of Border Patrol agents and for an urgent end to expulsions of Haitian and other asylum seekers at the southern border.
“We are heartbroken, and we are angry,” said Noah Gottschalk, Oxfam America’s Global Policy Lead. “Haitian asylum seekers being chased and verbally and physically assaulted by mounted Border Patrol agents at Del Rio did not happen in a vacuum. These deplorable actions are the direct result of years of racist immigration policies that have particularly harmed Black migrants, and of an administration that is failing to implement the humane asylum policies it promised.”
For months, the refugee rights and immigration justice community warned that the Biden administration’s policies were cruelly and directly harming vulnerable people. Oxfam and several other organizations are in fact currently suing the Biden administration over one of those policies, commonly referred to as Title 42, which is rooted in xenophobia and widely-debunked public health claims.
“Today, the shocking images across social media and the front pages of newspapers around the country and the world of the abusive treatment of Haitian asylum seekers are an undeniable reflection of this administration’s antipathy toward people seeking safety and protection in the US,” continued Gottschalk.
The images from Del Rio are just the latest example of the Biden administration’s harmful and hypocritical approach towards Haitians who have fled the deteriorating situation in their home country. Last month, the Biden administration recognized the “deteriorating political crisis, violence, and staggering increase in human rights abuses” in Haiti when it redesignated the country for Temporary Protected Status. It is completely unacceptable and unconscionable then to ramp up expulsions under Title 42 and deportation flights of Haitians.
Last week, a federal court issued a blistering decision ordering the Biden administration to stop expelling families seeking asylum at the southern border under false public health justifications. Rather than abide by that decision, the Biden administration appealed it, and continues to rely on this illegal pretext to send asylum seekers, including Haitians at the border, back into harm’s way.
“The injustice and inhumanity we are seeing play out in Del Rio is the exact reason we are suing the administration over Title 42. The US is using this racist policy not for any plausible public health reasons but simply as a tool to forcibly expel people coming to the border,” continued Gottschalk. “After decades of immigration policies grounded in anti-Blackness and xenophobia, it is shameful that President Biden and his administration has chosen to uphold that legacy of devastation.”