3 Records of Alleged Abusive or Improper Conduct where the event type is “Lying or Deliberate Misleading” where the victim classification is “Black”

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

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Black, Haiti

A March 2022 report from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and the Haitian Bridge Alliance found that DHS officials often lied to Haitian migrants about the destination of what turned out to be Title 42 expulsion flights, following a September 2021 mass migration event in Del Rio, Texas.

In the process of these expulsions, DHS officials reportedly made misleading statements to migrants, telling them that they were being flown to other locations within the United States for processing when, in reality, they were being expelled to Haiti. Because officers lied about where asylum seekers were being taken, some expelled individuals did not realize they had been sent to Haiti until they got off the plane.

—Beyond the Bridge: Documented Human Rights Abuses and Civil Rights Violations Against Haitian Migrants in the Del Rio, Texas Encampment (United States: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Haitian Bridge Alliance, March 29, 2022) https://rfkhr.imgix.net/asset/Del-Rio-Report.pdf.

Sector(s): Del Rio

Agency(ies): DHS

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

Last Known Accountability Status: Unknown

Victim Classification: Black, Haiti

Mid-June, 2021

The Kino Border Initiative reported about the separation of a Honduran Garífuna family whose asylum claim had gained an exception to the Title 42 expulsion policy:

Last week, a Honduran father of 5 whose wife is 3 months pregnant was detained by ICE as he and his family were processed through the consortium process at the downtown Nogales port of entry. The father does not have any criminal history in the US, and Spanish is the family’s second language, as they are part of the Garífuna indigenous community in Honduras.
As the mother shared in her testimony at the interfaith #SaveAsylum event this week, when the father was separated from his family, the CBP officer assured his wife that he would only be detained a day or two, but he has now been separated from his family for over a week.
His wife, who is stranded waiting for her husband’s release at a shelter in Tucson with their 5 children, attempted to set an appointment to visit her husband at La Palma, but was unable to do so because the visitation phone system is all in English. She has not received any clarity about when her husband will be released, and a week after his detention had not been able to make any contact since she does not have money to put in his commissary.

— “June 24 Update From KBI” (Nogales: Kino Border Initiative, June 24, 2021).

Sector(s): Tucson Field Office

Agency(ies): ICE, Office of Field Operations

Event Type(s): Family Separation, Lying or Deliberate Misleading

Last Known Accountability Status: Shared with Congressional Oversight Committees, Unknown

Victim Classification: Black, Family Unit, Honduras, Indigenous