TAKE ACTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Stop Deporting Haitian Asylum-Seekers

Last year, viral photos showed U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers violently dispersing a group of Haitian asylum-seekers at the Southern U.S. border on horseback - images that triggered the historical memory of slave patrols for people the world over. This inhumane treatment is not only horrific — it’s a violation of international law and the right of people to seek asylum.

Since then, the treatment of Haitian asylum-seekers has only worsened. Amnesty has documented human rights violations by U.S. authorities, including detaining babies as young as nine days old, separating children from parents, and denying interpreters and legal representation.

Our breaking report exposes that treatment that amounts to race-based torture, rooted in systemic anti-Black discrimination.

We must stop Haitian deportations and the ill-treatment of Black people in the immigration system and restore asylum NOW.

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To my U.S. Senators and Representative, President Biden, and Secretary Mayorkas – 
 
As a constituent of {user_data~City}, {user_data~State} and supporter of Amnesty International, I write with my utmost support for the right to seek asylum and an unequivocal and irrevocable end to Title 42 expulsions. This egregious policy has been misused over two million times to forcibly expel asylum-seekers to dangerous places in Mexico where they face violent attacks including rape, kidnapping, and assault, or deport them back to the very harm and persecution they fled from in their home countries. 
 
Tens of thousands of Haitians, including pregnant people, children, and infants, have been forcibly returned to a humanitarian crisis in Haiti under Title 42. These deportation flights continued even after the brutal treatment of Haitian families by border agents in Del Rio was broadcast around the world. Amnesty’s new research  found that between September 2021 and May 2022, 25,806 Haitian asylum-seekers were deported back in at least 227 flights from the U.S. (compared to a total of 37 flights in all of 2020).
 
Amnesty’s breaking research on Haitian expulsions has found that the treatment of Haitians amounts to race-based torture, rooted in systemic anti-Black discrimination.  From having their human right to seek asylum denied, to being deported in shackles and chains, Haitians are faced with anti-Black discrimination at every turn. In fact, Amnesty’s findings confirm that the use of restraints on Haitian asylum-seekers amounts to race-based torture under international human rights law.
 
Lawmakers who consider themselves champions of racial justice and allies to immigrant communities should not align themselves with policies like Title 42 that punish and force communities of color into danger. The administration’s announcement to terminate Title 42 is an important step forward to restore the U.S. government’s obligation under both U.S. and international law to uphold the human right to seek asylum in the United States. Advocates and communities around the country are ready for an end to Title 42 expulsions and to welcome people fleeing violence and crisis, and I urge Senators {last name} and {last name} and Representative {last name} to stand by them, asylum-seekers, and the right to seek asylum while the administration’s authority to end Title 42 is being determined by the courts. 
 
As the administration continues to fight in the courts for an end to Title 42, it must not turn to an unnecessary over-reliance on immigration detention. Amnesty’s new report found that the  treatment Haitians experienced in US detention facilities – which included a harsh combination of lack of access to food, healthcare, information, interpreters, and lawyers – quickly reached the threshold of ill-treatment under international human rights law. Asylum-seekers and immigrants can navigate the immigration process with the support of sponsors and community-based nonprofits, without detention  or restrictive “alternatives” that still criminalize, surveil, and harm communities of color. Many immigrants and asylum seekers already have long-standing family, faith, and other community ties in the United States. A presumption of liberty must be incorporated in all custody decisions, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with private prison corporations and county jails must be phased out.
 
The administration must also stop the inhumane and unjust deportations to Haiti. Our recent report found that Haitian asylum-seekers continue to be disproportionately impacted by Title 42, and the U.S.’ historic ill-treatment of Haitians doesn’t stop when Title 42 does. Your administration has the discretion to stop deportations to Haiti and should exercise this authority, immediately.
 
I call on my US Senators and Representative and on the Biden administration to:

- Restore asylum at the border and  end  Title 42 expulsions and all other anti-asylum policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) once and for all;
- End anti-Black racism in the immigration system;
- Immediately stop any and all deportations to Haiti; and
- End the use of arbitrary, mass immigration detention.
 
People across the country and around the world are watching you. This is your time to show leadership and to lead with compassion and humanity. 
 
Thank you,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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