September 2021

A Human Rights First report described DHS expulsions of asylum seekers from Haiti, especially following the mid-September arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.

DHS detained many of those expelled to Haiti for days in the United States prior to expulsion—undercutting the administration’s claims that the expulsions were being carried out to protect public health—and transported them in shackles on flights to Haiti. DHS officers frequently refuse to tell those being expelled where they are being taken and, in some cases, cruelly lie that the flights are destined for Florida or elsewhere in the United States. Mirlande Joachim, an attorney representing more than a dozen Haitian asylum seekers detained after crossing near Del Rio told Human Rights First that CBP and other DHS officers routinely refused to allow her to speak to her clients and that most were expelled without a fear screening despite her and the clients’ repeated attempts to request them.

— Julia Neusner, Kennji Kizuka, “Illegal and Inhumane”: Biden Administration Continues Embrace of Trump Title 42 Policy as Attacks on People Seeking Refuge Mount (New York: Human Rights First, October 21, 2021) https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/illegal-and-inhumane-biden-administration-continues-embrace-trump-title-42-policy-attacks.

Sector(s): Border-Wide

Agency(ies): DHS

Event Type(s): Denial of Access to Counsel, Denial of Protection to Most Vulnerable, Lying or Deliberate Misleading

Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Black, Haiti