Slave Patrol Immigration Policyby C.A. Matthews
Images of white lawmen on horses whipping poor black migrants crossing a river have been thrown in our faces repeatedly. Is it any wonder that the first thing to come to mind is, "The slave patrols never went away in the US, did they?" Welcome to 21st America! Welcome to a nation where racism is enshrined in its immigration laws in spite of a civil war that supposedly outlawed slavery and civil rights regulations that supposedly maintain the fiction of equality for all.
Is it really any surprise that the slave patrol still exists? The history of the US Border Patrol predicted these lawmen's recent actions toward the Haitian migrants:
Since its creation in 1924, the US Border Patrol
has been steeped in institutional racism and has committed violent acts
with near impunity. The racial animus of US immigration policy in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century formed the foundation for
the agency. Federal laws banning Asian immigration were followed by the
national origins quota system, which prioritized northern and western
Europeans over the rest of the world. While not included in the original
quotas, Mexicans, who previously could travel freely across the
US-Mexico border, began to experience increasing restrictions in the
1920s.
Congress created the Border Patrol in 1924 to
patrol the northern and southern borders between ports of entry. Many
officers came from organizations with a history of racial violence and
brutality, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Texas Rangers, carrying
over the culture of a racist “brotherhood” into the new agency. In the
Border Patrol’s early days, it focused on the unlawful entry of Asian
and European immigrants. However, in the 1930s enforcement began to
shift to Mexican citizens entering along the southern border.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/legacy-racism-within-us-border-patrol
Our government actions towards immigrants have become so horrendous that even government officials cannot tolerate them any longer:
“I will not be associated with the
United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands
of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where
American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the
dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,” wrote former Haiti envoy Daniel Foote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday.
“Our policy approach to Haiti remains
deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,
when not edited to project a narrative different from my own.” US Diplomat to Haiti Resigns Citing Inhumane Deportations
https://truthout.org/articles/us-diplomat-to-haiti-resigns-citing-inhumane-deportations/
Envoy Foote understands that all who present themselves at the border asking for asylum are legally within their rights to receive a credible fear hearing. Even federal judges have called on the Biden administration to stop pursuing the "Trump policy" of Title 42:
All people who are physically present in the United States have the right to apply for asylum, “whether or not”
they come through a port of entry or cross the border without
authorization. Since Title 42 went into effect at the border in March
2020, the Border Patrol has carried out over 1,100,000 expulsions,
regardless of whether the person was seeking asylum or not. Yet even
after a federal judge ruled last week
that the Title 42 policy was illegal – at least in terms of its use
against families with children – the Biden administration chose to
immediately appeal that decision.
Del Rio Migrant Camp Shows How Biden Administration Isn't Living Up to Its Promises
https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/09/21/haitian-migrant-camp-biden-promises/
Will we be seeing changes in immigration practices, policies, or laws anytime soon? One would hope these horrific images would provoke change, but it's doubtful. It's doubtful because the true forces that rule, the billionaire oligarchs, don't see the kind treatment of strangers on our borders as necessary. In fact, it suits their purposes just fine to keep a permanent underclass of workers that can be easily manipulated through the fear of deportation back to a country that is falling apart physically and politically. When that doesn't stop those brave souls that go forward with their plans to come to the US to join friends and family here, we resort to what we've always done. We strike fear into their hearts through the use of 21st century slave patrols.
And some folks wonder why I snigger at this line from the Pledge of Allegiance: With liberty and justice for all. It depends on how you define all. It obviously doesn't include Haitians...or Mexicans...or Hondurans...or Guatemalans....
More articles:
Haitian Rights Are Human Rights https://popularresistance.org/haitian-rights-are-migrant-rights/
Haitians Who Fled The US Border Are Now Facing Nights of Raids and Terror in Mexico https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/adolfoflores/haitians-us-border-night-raids-mexico
Black Alliance for Peace Condemns Biden Administration's Order to Deport Haitians as Illegal and Racist https://popularresistance.org/black-alliance-for-peace-condemns-biden-administrations-order-to-deport-haitians-as-illegal-and-racist/
How Communities Are Urging Congress to Stop Funding Cruelty Against Migrants https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/update-how-communities-are-urging-congress-to-stop-funding-cruelty-against
Biden's Border Patrol Whipping Refugees! https://youtu.be/JLRPaoyFOQc
***
You already know that when we say: Black lives matter, we mean ALL Black lives. Including Haitian asylum seekers at the border.
And yet, this past week, we were
reminded once again just how deeply ingrained anti-Blackness is in the
institutions upon which the nation relies.
We don’t need to show you the images
that surfaced from the US-Mexico border of white Border Patrol officers
on horses chasing, yelling, and whipping Haitian asylum seekers to tell
you how viscerally it conjures this country's not so distant past;
visions of violent slave patrols and public lynchings reimagined by
modern-day henchmen.
Haitian asylum seekers who have for
weeks and months been fleeing toward what they thought was safety, were
terrorized, abused, and then deported. Others are being sent to
Guantanamo Bay, or back to Mexico where organized crime and
collaborators in Mexican security forces routinely prey on migrants -
especially Haitians, who are particularly vulnerable because of their
skin color.
It’s time to put
an end to anti-Black immigration practices. Seeking asylum is a legal
and human right, fundamental to maintaining democracy. It must extend to
Black people
sign our petition & demand biden protects black migrants today
While on the campaign trail, Biden made promises to the
Haitian community to have more fair immigration policies. And yet he may
soon be responsible for carrying out the largest mass expulsion of
would-be asylum-seekers in recent American history.
Thousands of people, including families
and children, will be expelled to Haiti - a country the Administration
itself has described as teetering on the brink of collapse as a result
of centuries of imperialism and foreign intervention intent on
destabilizing the first Black republic.
In just the past two and a half months
alone, Haiti has seen its president assassinated and weathered a
devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake, all in the middle of a pandemic.
It would be unconscionable to send people back to Haiti.
Biden promised us a more humanitarian approach to immigration AND a commitment to racial justice. We demand the Administration follows through on its promises by:
- Stopping deportations to Haiti
- Granting humanitarian parole to thousands of Black asylum seekers and processing their claims without further delay
- Conducting a thorough investigation into the
acts of Border Patrol agents in Del Rio and anti-Black practices
throughout the agency
- Halting the treatment we witnessed, and instead employing a humanitarian approach to immigration
add your name to our demands & affirm that all black lives matter
Make no mistake, what’s happening at the border right now is an extension of white supremacy in the United States.
Every arm of our country’s
incarceration and deportation machine bears down on and disrupts Black
people and communities. For decades, Black migrants have faced
disproportionate rates of detention and deportation, and abuse like
solitary confinement within detention centers.
The message we’re being told once in
again is: Black people are unwelcome in the United States, and are
subject to policing and abuse.
From police to immigration, we cannot and will not tolerate anti-Blackness.
Immigration is a Black issue. And we must:
protect black migrants
Until Justice is Real,
Scott, Erika, Rashad, Arisha, Malachi, Megan, Ernie, Palika, Ariel,
Madison, Trevor, Erick, Ana, Kristiana, McKayla and the Color Of Change
team
***
Border agents attacked asylum seekers with whip-like cords and horses
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One month ago, Haiti endured a horrible earthquake that roiled the
island. Homes, churches, hotels, and more collapsed into rubble, leaving
tens of thousands of people displaced. Officials estimate that upwards
of 50,000 homes were decimated nearly overnight.
In the wake of this calamity, refugees have turned to the United States as a beacon of hope in a time of sorrow. But recent video footage shows U.S. Border Patrol agents in Texas literally whipping the refugees with cords, as well as corralling the asylum seekers by lunging at them on horseback and physically grabbing at them. Sign the petition to demand justice and an end to this cruelty!
These refugees came here believing the U.S. could be a place filled with benevolence and possibility. Seeking asylum is not a crime in the United States. In fact, it is a nationally and internationally protected human right,
one for which the U.S. technically has a process. That process is not
supposed to include heaving whips at those in need of help. On top of
that, the Biden administration has recently undertaken a mass
deportation operation against Haitian refugees, sending back upwards of
6,000 people already. Sign
the petition to tell the U.S. government, including President Joe Biden
to stop the inhumane treatment of refugees now, and to halt all
deportations of asylum seekers!
Thank you,
 |
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Kelsey
The Care2 Petitions Team
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P.S. The U.S. must live up to its moral responsibility as a powerful,
resourceful nation to do right by those who are in desperate straits,
and at the very least, do no harm to asylum seekers. Sign the petition.
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***
It is hard to look at the horrific images from the southern border.
The sight of armed men on horseback — agents of the United States
government — attacking Haitian migrants, camped in a small Texas border
town, immediately brings to mind the horrors of chattel slavery. And for
those of us of the Black Diaspora, it is a horrifying vision that
reaches into our past and tells a damning truth about our present.
And even though we’re now being told that the last of the makeshift
camps have cleared and the migrants are headed for Customs and Border
Protections Centers, what we saw this week was yet another reminder that
the humanity of Black people is always, at best, conditional.
As we demand justice for Haitian migrants, we must also reckon with
the knowledge that Haiti has borne the brunt of imperialist
anti-Blackness for centuries and that this is yet another in a long line
of pointed cruelty that has long been leveled at Haitian immigrants.
Anti-Blackness within our country’s long history of white supremacy
often excludes the voices and experiences of Black immigrants from
mainstream conversations about immigration and immigrant rights.
And the horrifying scenes from the border have been anti-Blackness in action.
At NDWA, we see this anti-Blackness every day: the systematic devaluation of domestic work is so deeply rooted in race and gender discrimination against Black women from across the Diaspora that has survived through laws, attitudes, and culture since slavery.
This is why We Dream in Black (WeDiB), NDWA and our Black
Caucus, comprised of Black staffers, stand in solidarity with Haiti and
Haitian refugees in every way possible and will continue our
work to dismantle the centuries of institutionalized anti-Black racism
that led to this most recent horror.
NDWA and our Families Belong Together (FBT) campaign will remain
vocal in calling out the Biden administration for exacerbating this
crisis with cruel Trump-era immigration policies, and we will continue to do all we can to center Black needs, voices, and leadership in our work.
If you’re looking for ways to assist those working on the ground
during this unspeakable crisis, we’ve pulled together ways you can offer
support.
In solidarity,
We Dream in Black
The Black Caucus of the National Domestic Workers Alliance
