The Biden admin's horrific treatment of Haitian people at the border is the latest episode in decades of discriminatory, anti-Black U.S. immigration policies that illegally turnback, expel, detain & mistreat Haitian people trying to find refuge in the United States. In this factsheet by @HaitianBridge & @humanrights1st, we explain this history & how Biden admin policies today block asylum at ports of entry pushing Haitians (& other asylum seekers) to cross the border, only to be expelled to escalating danger in Haiti.
humanrightsfirst.org/resource/biden…

Asylum seekers expelled to/blocked in Ciudad Acuña by the Biden admin are facing kidnappings & attacks, abuses by police & many are homeless w/ shelters full. We heard really disturbing reports of violence & abuse by Border Patrol agents carrying out expulsions. Where to begin? A lesbian asylum seeker from Honduras left homeless while waiting for the US port of entry to open to asylum requests was attacked in Acuña by men trying to steal the sweets she sells to survive. They broke her arm. The bruises on her face were still visible days after the attack

In Piedras Negras, asylum seekers blocked from US protection face a dangerous situation. The city has forbidden shelters to house migrants leaving most ppl on the streets, many sleeping in abandoned houses & lots, where they’re at risk of kidnappings and violent attacks. A nun who feeds stranded migrant families & adults from her shelter said that those forced to sleep on the streets in Piedras Negras regularly come to her with head wounds after being attacked, but she’s forbidden to provide them a safe place to sleep.

Shelters in Nuevo Laredo try to protect ppl expelled to/blocked in Mexico by the Biden admin but the violence is immense. Multiple ppl said a family was kidnapped just outside a shelter as they tried to reach sanctuary. The children, they said, screamed as they were abducted. In the past days, gunfights have taken place throughout Nuevo Laredo including just outside the shelters we visited. The pastor hosting us said his third shelter is in the middle of a cartel-controlled neighborhood blocks from a house where the cartel holds kidnapped people.

NEW: Here's the full @DHSOIG report finding that CBP lied about capacity at ports of entries & turned away asylum seekers seeking US humanitarian protection. It confirms the allegations in @AlOtroLado_Org's suit against this illegal & dangerous practice.

oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…

https://twitter.com/aflores/status/1321985033964584980

The report finds: “While DHS leadership urged asylum seekers to present themselves at ports of entry, the agency took deliberate steps to limit the number of undocumented aliens who could be processed each day at Southwest Border land ports of entry.”

NEW: 26 orgs serving asylum seekers DHS sent to Mexico thru the "Migrant Protection Protocols" urge DHS to parole them into the US & stop forcing them to risk their health & safety to travel to ports of entry to pick up notices for canceled hearings during the COVID-19 outbreak If DHS fails to end MPP & parole asylum seekers, these legal, faith-based, humanitarian & community organizations urge that the agency should at a minimum issue official guidance to:
● stop requiring individuals in MPP to present at ports of entry for rescheduled hearing notices

Observing MPP tent court hearings in Brownsville today was heartbreak:

Not a single one of 34 asylum seekers had a lawyer, including an elderly Venezuelan couple, a Cuban man separated from his pregnant wife, and a transwoman. The Venezuelan abuelos submitted an asylum application & some evidence, but their March 1970 marriage certificate was untranslated & they struggled to answer the judge's questions. They asked the judge to call the man in Georgia who prepared their application to clear things up.

Last month DHS sent a Venezuelan asylum seeker, J, back to danger in Mexico AFTER he WON protection in immigration court (& without a lawyer!). Today after hours of negotiation & intervention by Congressional staffers, J was finally allowed into the US at Laredo. Let me explain: The admin’s latest asylum ban made J, who is seeking protection here bc of political persecution in Venezuela ineligible for asylum. Instead, he got “withholding of removal” meaning he has a deport order, no path to residency/citizenship, & no way to reunite w/kids or a spouse

In Juarez, Lilia* & Yasmin* from Cuba, found the Trump Admin turning away asylum seekers at the U.S. port of entry. They put their names on the CBP "metering" list. Weeks into their wait men targeting migrants kidnapped & repeatedly raped Lilia & Yasmin. humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/… After their families paid a ransom, Lilia & Yasmin lived in fear for weeks before their turn to request asylum. “We thought that when we entered the United States, we’d finally be safe,” Yasmin said. Instead, DHS returned them to Mexico under the #MigrantPersecutionProtocols

In Nuevo Laredo asylum seekers wait weeks to approach Laredo’s port of entry. Even when called from the ‘list’ they wait on a bridge. Right now 50+ people are waiting in the wet & cold for up to 3 days. CBP let in only 10-15 daily in the past days. Some days no one is accepted. We visited a shelter in Nuevo Laredo overflowing with asylum seekers waiting bc of CBP metering in danger. The shelter director told us many of the asylum seekers there had been victims of kidnapping & extortion by organized criminal groups.