Haitian Refugees and Compassion
I just read the transcript of a podcast in which two opposing views were presented related to the border crisis at Del Rio, TX. This is the opening statement of Maria Pabon, Professor of Law at Loyola University in New Orleans.
What we have here is a very dire humanitarian crisis. We have a country that has suffered the assassination of its president and an earthquake within weeks from each other. These are refugees fleeing political instability in their country, and it's not 1.4 million (refugees fleeing) or the number that Mr. Arthur has cited. I think the numbers we saw were about maybe 12,000 to 15,000 who were camped there in Del Rio under the bridge. And now there's been, I think, 17 flights to repatriate them—which, of course, is very sad because if they're fleeing persecution and you send them right back to where they're going to be persecuted, you're violating international human rights norms.
I sympathize with the Haitians. Even more, I feel sorry for Professor Pabon. She failed to do the minimum due diligence before writing. None of the Haitian refugees came directly from Haiti. They had all left Haiti years in the past as inexpensive labor to Brazil, Ecuador or Peru. Many in Brazil relocated to Chile, where most received refugee status. When they heard the siren call of the President and Vice President, they began making their way to the Southern Border. These are not refugees fleeing political instability in Haiti, they already had work permits, in many cases had been granted refugee status in Latin America, in some cases had become citizens of the countries in which they were residing. Their families also had refugee status. The illegal immigrants from Haiti wanted better social benefits in the US, which is not a reason for granting asylum.
They realized that if this could be proven, they would be refused asylum in the US. Thus, they destroyed all identification and other documents that would prove they were ineligible for asylum. Secretary of Homeland Security finally admitted that at least 12,000, and perhaps more, Haitians have been resettled in the US. None was tested for COVID or other infectious diseases. None is required to be vaccinated.
None of this is secret, although it is suppressed on social media run by Big Tech, and in the mainstream press. The President’s only reaction has been to blame the Mounted Border Control Agents for whipping black people, something that the video neither shows nor supports. In a puzzling display of inequality, the President has mandated that Border Patrol Agents be vaccinated or lose their jobs, while illegal border crossers are free to roam where they wish
Unfortunately, Professor Pabon’s debate opponent, Andrew Arthur, former associate general counsel at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, seems little better informed. His statements wander about and don’t really support his thesis that the crisis at the Border is President Biden’s fault. Judge for yourself:
It's important to go back to one of the statements that the professor made: Haiti is in dire circumstances right now. Haiti's been in dire circumstances for decades. The earthquake a few years back definitely made it worse. The political situation there has been rough. And one of the things that I did when I was associate general counsel at the INS was, I was responsible for removing some of the Haitian coup plotters. The United States government had actually brought to the United States individuals who had attempted to overthrow Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was the president of Haiti. But the population of people that we're seeing now are not primarily Haitians who are coming from Haiti. One of the things that we saw in Central America and South America actually was, between 2014 to 2016, large numbers of Haitians were brought into Brazil in order to help that country prepare for the World Cup and the Olympics.
So there was a huge population of Haitians who were living in Brazil. The Brazilians attempted, when they no longer needed them, to expel them from Brazil and about a 100,000 to 150,000 of them went to Chile and were living in Chile. I actually have first-hand experience of this because when I was in Del Rio, there were large piles of trash that were sitting along the border from where the migrants had crossed. Interestingly, included in those trash piles were large numbers of government documents that had been issued to Haitians. So, there is that, anecdotally, and in fact, USA Today just reported on this—about the large number of Haitians who were living in Santiago, Chilet {sic}. I certainly experienced it.
None of Biden’s actions is secret to anyone whose identity doesn’t depend on believing that no information can possibly exist that disagrees with his biases. Yet, Arthur cannot go for the easy win simply by recounting them. His entire post is self-defense and -justification.
There are real people involved here, humans, who should never have left the countries in which they already had refuge. It is difficult to believe that there are no expatriate Haitian community leaders in South America. If Kamala Harris wishes to trace “root cause,” as she claims, she might ask Barack Obama, our most famous community organizer, to South America to offer advice.
There is no reasoned discussion about the Border Crisis. Period. The press’s complete loss of skepticism has spread to the general population. This is frightening.
Living in FL there was such different treatment of people form Haiti and Cuba. Haitians are over 2% of the state, so I had a fair number of Haitian students. There are far fewer in Canada (less than 200K) and you'd think that Francophone province would ease the way.
I don't understand why France doesn't do more but expect that staying in the Caribbean (FL is part of the Caribbean..we even have an association Caribbean librarians which include FL).
Aristide was covered well in FL press at the time (there is hardly a FL press anymore) but not remembered much now in these conversations.
I've been talking with a friend who is going to study in a European county for 2 years. She's very careful to do things correctly. She has made 4 200mi RT to that country's consulate to get things organized to go and obtain the proper documentation. Other countries are far ore careful than we are.
I think about this all the time. If the U.S. carried out its own laws we might have a start at a better solution.