Biden Administration has failed to create a fair and just immigration system | Opinion

• Judith Clerjeune is the campaigns and advocacy director for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and an immigrant from Haiti.

The images of Black Haitian asylum seekers being chased and whipped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on horseback are revolting, and yet were not shocking for many familiar with the history and context of the U.S immigration system.

This grotesque and inhumane reception offered to the Black Haitian asylum seekers is a product of a much deeper global legacy of imperialism, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, which is facilitated by the complete failure of the Biden Administration to enact significant and needed changes to make the U.S immigration system just and fair.

My name is Judith Clerjeune, and I am the Campaigns and Advocacy Director for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and an immigrant from Haiti. It was heartbreaking seeing these recent images and being reminded, yet again, that instead of welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers with dignity, this country chooses to dehumanize, detain, and separate families.

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Haitians have routinely been refused entry to the U.S.

For decades now, Black asylum seekers have been making their way to the U.S-Mexico border. The 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti’s capital resulted in a significant increase of Haitian asylum seekers,  as thousands fled for refuge to the U.S and other central and South American countries such as Chile and Venezuela.

Recently,  dire sociopolitical and economic conditions in many of the Central American countries they fled to have forced many Haitian migrants to flee yet again. In turn, the U.S has routinely denied asylum. 

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Among the 10 nationalities with the most asylum decisions from 2012-2017, Haitians had the second-highest denial rate at 87%. Since then,  the Trump and Biden administrations have also used Title 42, an order that prevents asylum seekers from making their claim, to stop Black immigrants, especially Haitians,  from seeking asylum.

Thousands of people, many with young children, did not undertake a thousand miles long, life-threatening journey for no reason. In addition to Covid-19, and within this past year alone, Haiti has faced the wild and still unsolved assassination of its president, and this past August suffered from another 7.2 magnitude earthquake that injured 12,000 people, damaged or destroyed 120,000 homes, displaced hundreds of thousands of people, and killed over 2,200 Haitians.

Yet the Biden administration continues to send dozens of repatriation flights full of asylum seekers, many of whom are children, back to Haiti.

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The president is not keeping his campaign promises on immigration

Despite campaign promises, the number of immigrants jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased 70% since the start of the Biden administration.  Black immigrants are also significantly more likely to be targeted for deportation.

While 7% of non-citizens in the U.S. are Black, they make up a full 20% of those facing deportation on criminal grounds, according to Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

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Not only are Haitian families being detained more often, but ICE also makes it more difficult for them to be released. According to Raices Texas, bonds paid for Haitian immigrants by RAICES were 54% higher than for other immigrants.

The Biden admin continues to put harmful and ineffective deterrence practices and incarceration at the center of its approach to immigration. Contrary to popular belief, it is still unsafe for immigrants under this administration, and we must demand better!

Here are five solutions for the immigration challenge

Here are some immediate first steps the Biden administration must start implementing:  

• Stop all deportations of Haitian migrants and others seeking asylum.  It is cruel to return people to a country they had fled because of its dangerous, life-threatening conditions.
• Grant immediate humanitarian parole to Haitian asylum-seekers at the border and others seeking refuge and allowing them to process their asylum claims on the U.S. side of the border.
• End Title 42,  and ensure due process rights for all asylum seekers and migrants.
•  Halt and review immigration deterrence and containment agreements with Central American countries to ensure compliance with international human rights commitments.
• Defund ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP, and invest in ensuring the U.S asylum system and other systems of protection are properly resourced. 

Judith Clerjeune is the campaigns and advocacy director for the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and an immigrant from Haiti.