Today I accompanied our partners @HaitianBridge to a Tijuana shelter housing Haitian asylum seekers. One of them fled Haiti after an opposing political party tried to kill him. @humanrights1st 1/7
Because of Title 42 border closures, he’s now been waiting over a year in Tijuana to request U.S. asylum. He’s been robbed at gunpoint twice, and he lost factory job after his visa expired this week. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” 2/7
Another Haitian man had made the treacherous journey to the U.S. with his wife and 3-year-old son in October after the family was threatened for their political beliefs. They were robbed of their documents and belongings along the way. 3/7
When at last they crossed the U.S. border, they were expelled back to Haiti under Title 42 without the opportunity to request asylum. “They put us on a bus, then made us get on a plane. Nobody knew we were being sent back to Haiti. They didn’t tell us anything.” 4/7
Fearing for his life, the man returned to Tijuana, but couldn’t afford to bring his wife and child with him. His family remains in hiding in Haiti while the man waits for the U.S. to resume asylum processing. 5/7
A Haitian asylum seeker living in the border encampment was robbed and beaten outside a grocery store. He couldn’t afford to go to the hospital. Without legal status and unable to find work, he’s spent two months living on Tijuana streets and eating donated meals. 6/7
“They’ll kill me if I go back to Haiti. At this moment I don’t know what I can do with my life. I am very desperate.” 7/7
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In a Tijuana shelter, I spoke with five Central American asylum-seeking mothers who U.S. immigration officers had expelled to Mexico under Title 42 with their young children within the past two weeks. Their stories are heartbreaking. @humanrights1st 1/6
All had crossed from Reynosa into Texas. All had been transferred by bus and plane to Tijuana after spending several days in freezing cold holding cells. Some tried to ask for asylum. “We were getting death threats in Guatemala. We tried to tell them but they wouldn’t listen.”2/6
None knew they were being expelled to Mexico until they were dumped at the Otay Mesa port of entry. Some reported that U.S. officers outright lied to them and said they were bringing them to their U.S. family members. “When I realized I was in Mexico, I just cried and cried.” 3/6