Today 164 human rights organizations, immigrants’ rights organizations, faith-based groups and academic institutions across the United States and Haiti submitted a letter to the Trump Administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denouncing the deportation of 61 Haitians on April 7, 2020, and urging them to halt deportations to Haiti. The letter comes on the eve of rumors of a deportation flight bound for Haiti scheduled for as early as April 21, 2020.
U.S. must stop deportations to Haiti: Deportations now during a global pandemic is Trump’s cruel, and usual, punishment of Haitians
April 20, 2020
We the undersigned are concerned about the health and human rights of Haitian immigrants and denounce the Trump Administration’s deportation of 61 Haitian Nationals on April 7, 2020, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.
We the undersigned demand that the Trump Administration halt all deportations to Haiti during the coronavirus pandemic. More deportations to Haiti are scheduled for the coming days and weeks. Rather than be deported where they face serious harm if they fall ill and risk infecting thousands of others, they should be released from detention into the care of their friends and families so that they may safely quarantine, especially those who are more vulnerable to serious complications from the virus due to age, medical condition or other factors.
We are deeply concerned that all detainees in ICE detention centers have a high risk of exposure to coronavirus. Dozens of immigration detainees and ICE agents in often-overcrowded detention facilities across the country have tested positive for COVID-19. While states across the country mandate social distancing, in many of the detention centers over 100 detainees live in one dorm room and share only a few toilets. Detainees have minimal access to medical care, COVID tests, soap or hand sanitizer. Given these conditions, detainees are at high risk of both contracting and dying from COVID-19.
However, reducing overcrowding in detention centers does not mean that ICE should deport detainees without proper removal proceedings in the midst of the largest global pandemic of our lifetimes. John Sandweg, Former acting director of ICE, concedes that ICE detention centers “are extremely susceptible to outbreaks of infectious diseases” and recommends that the Trump Administration “release the thousands of nonviolent, low-flight-risk detainees currently in ICE custody.”
We are also concerned that Haiti’s fragile government, almost non-existent healthcare system and close, impoverished living conditions would make it challenging to contain and treat a massive surge of COVID-19 cases. According to a local nonprofit, as a result of international policy and government inaction, Haiti has only 39 physicians to manage COVID-19, 124 ICU beds and the capacity to ventilate 62 people in a country of 11 million people. Community spread of the disease, 47 cases and three deaths have been reported. These numbers are likely to be far higher, as only 498 tests had been reportedly administered to date.
It’s unclear how the U.S. government could justify deportations when last month it issued a level 4 travel advisory for Haiti, labeling Haiti as dangerous as conflict zones such as Afghanistan, South Sudan and Somalia. But the deportation on April 7 falls in line with the U.S. government’s long history of discrimination and poor treatment against Haitians.
For over 200 years, Haiti has tried to be a friend to the U.S., but the U.S. has never had Haiti’s best interest. Haitians continue to pay for winning their independence from France in a slave rebellion in 1804, and for abolishing slavery. The U.S. did not recognize Haiti’s statehood until 1862, 58 years after it declared independence. In 1915-34, the U.S. Marines illegally invaded and occupied Haiti, seized control of the Haitian National Bank and amended the constitution to allow foreign land ownership. More recently, the U.S. financially and diplomatically supported the Duvalier dictatorship from 1957-86, supported the overthrow of democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and meddled in multiple recent elections.
The U.S. immigration prison system as we know it today started in the 1990s when the Coast Guard collected tens of thousands of Haitian refugees and imprisoned them in Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo was known as the “HIV prison camp” because of the poor treatment of HIV positive Haitian refugees, who were wrongly blamed for the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.
President Donald Trump promised to be a champion for Haitian-Americans on his campaign trail in South Florida in 2016, but this president too has disregarded the rights and dignity of Haitians. President Trump notoriously referred to Haiti as a sh*ithole country in 2018, and terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians despite evidence from his own State Department that Haiti was unprepared to receive deportees due to a severe housing shortage and public health crisis following the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew and a cholera epidemic brought by United Nations peacekeeping soldiers.
In the words of The Miami Herald Editorial Board, “Deportations despite coronavirus is Trump’s cruel, and usual, punishment of Haitians.”
We proudly stand in solidarity with our Haitian sisters and brothers and urge the Trump Administration to immediately take the following actions:
- Halt all deportations of Haitian Nationals back to Haiti;
- Release immigrants from detention maximizing use of humanitarian parole, release on recognizance, and where necessary, community-based alternatives to detention, following medical screening and in a manner consistent with public health protocols on COVID-19; and
- Coordinate with local groups to ensure housing and transportation upon release, and avoid holding asylum seekers in enclosed or densely populated spaces.
Signed,
- A. Philip Randolph Institute
- African Advocacy Network (AAN)
- Adelanto Visitation Network
- Adhikaar
- Advocate Visitors with Immigrants in Detention
- African Communities Together
- Al Oltro Lado
- Alianza Americas
- Alkalay Law Office
- Alternative Chance
- AME-SADA, INC.
- America’s Voice
- Americans for Immigrant Justice
- Association of Haitian Professionals (AHP)
- Baptist Peace fellowship of North America
- Beyond Borders
- Black Alliance for Immigration Justice (BAJI)
- Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project (BLMP)
- Brooklyn Defender Services
- Cabinet d’Avocats Spécialisés en Litige Stratégique des Droits Humains (CASLSDH)
- Cameroon American Council
- CARECEN-LA
- Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
- Church World Service (CSW)
- Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
- CLUE-Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice
- Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
- Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
- Coalition on Human Needs
- Community Justice Exchange – National Bail Fund Network
- Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
- Consortium for a Haiti that Works (CHW)
- Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
- Crossing Borders – Dubuque
- CUNY
- Defenseurs Plus
- Democratic Socialists of America – Los Angeles
- Disaster Law Project
- Dominican Development Center, Inc.
- Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose
- Dominican Sisters of Houston
- Dominican Sisters of Tacoma
- Environmental Justice Initiative for Haiti
- Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
- Families Belong Together
- Families For Freedom
- First Friends of NJ & NY
- Floaves Inc
- Fondasyon Mapou
- Four Freedoms Forum
- Franciscan Sisters of the Poor
- Freedom for Immigrants
- FWD.us
- Gender Action
- Grassroots International
- Haiti Justice Alliance
- Haiti Justice Committee
- Haiti Justice Committee of Minnesota
- Haiti Partners
- Haiti Support Network
- Haitian-American Community Coalition, Inc. (HCC)
- Haitian Americans United for Progress, Inc. (HAUP)
- Haitian Bridge Alliance
- Haitian Educators League for Progress
- Haitian Studies Association
- Hastings to Haiti Partnership
- Healthworks Ending Detention
- Holy Names Sisters
- Holy Union Sisters
- Hope Border Institute
- Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
- Immaculate Heart Community
- Immigrant and Refugee Committee, Sisters of the Most Precious Blood
- Immigrant Defenders Law Center
- Immigrant Legal Defense
- Immigrants List
- Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice
- Innovation Law Lab
- Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)
- Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center
- International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School
- Jerusalem Agape SDA Church
- Jewish Community Action
- Justice For Our Neighbors Houston
- KODESOLD
- Kriyol Dance Collective
- La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE)
- LA Voice
- Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center
- Latin America Working Group (LAWG)
- Leadership Conference of Women Religious
- Li, Li, Li! Read
- MADRE
- Make the Road NY
- Matthew 25
- Minnesota Immigrants Rights Action Network (MIRAC)
- Minority Humanitarian Foundation
- Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights
- National Conference of Black Lawyers
- National Immigrant Justice Center
- National Justice for Our Neighbors
- National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)
- National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
- National Lawyers Guild Central Arizona
- National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights
- New Sanctuary Coalition
- Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors
- New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE)
- Ohio Immigrant Alliance
- Orange County Equality Coalition
- Partners In Health
- Pax Christi Ayiti
- Poder Latinx
- Presbyterian Church USA
- Priority Africa Network
- Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada
- Project Blueprint
- Project South
- Quixote Center
- Reformed Church of Highland Park
- Refugee Support Network
- Religious of Jesus and Mary
- Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains (RNDDH)
- Resilience Orange County
- Resources to Resources
- Rian Immigrant Center
- RLM Art Studio/Drawing the Line
- Salesians of Don Bosco
- Salvadoran American Leadership and Educational Fund
- San Antonio Region Justice For Our Neighbors
- Sant La, Haitian Neighborhood Center
- School Sisters of Notre Dame
- School Sisters of Notre Dame Atlantic Midwest Province
- School Sisters of Notre Dame, Central Pacific Province
- Schools of the America Watch (SOAW) East Bay, California
- Sequoia Potential
- Services, Immigrant Rights & Education Network (SIREN)
- Sinsinawa Dominican Associates
- Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
- Sister of Charity of Leavenworth
- Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross USA Province
- Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
- Sisters of St. Joseph
- Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange
- Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood NY Office of Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation
- Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, LA Province
- Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus & Mary
- Sisters of the Living Word
- Still Waters Anti-trafficking Program
- Society of the Holy Child Jesus, American Province
- South Texas Human Rights Center
- SFV Indivisible
- The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)
- The Haitian Women’s Collective
- The Legal Aid Society (New York)
- The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
- Transforming Justice Orange County
- UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic
- Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
- United We Dream
- Venice Resistance
- Witness at the Border
- Women For Orange County
- Woodhull Freedom Foundation