Home

US expels dozens of Haitian asylum seekers

Jose Luis Gonzalez and Lizbeth DiazAAP
Haitian migrants say they have been returned to Mexico from the US without any documentation.
Camera IconHaitian migrants say they have been returned to Mexico from the US without any documentation.

US authorities have returned dozens of Haitians to the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez from El Paso, Texas, in a move that appears to contradict a policy agreement in place with Mexico brokered under the previous US administration.

Luis Garcia, a director at the Chihuahua state government agency COESPO in Mexico, which oversees attention to migrants, confirmed the return of dozens of Haitians by US immigration authorities on Wednesday.

"The situation seems somewhat extraordinary for us, because they don't speak Spanish, and it puts them in a situation in which they are increasingly exposed to risk," Garcia said.

As the coronavirus pandemic spread in March, the United States partially closed its border to asylum seekers by invoking a public health law known as Title 42.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

Mexico agreed to allow US authorities to return Guatemalans, Hondurans, and Salvadorans who had previously transited through its territory.

But the agreement between the two countries was limited to those three nationalities and Mexicans, according to the text of a March 21 document published by Mexico's foreign ministry.

Under Title 42, the United States generally flies migrants of other nationalities back to their country of origin.

More than a dozen Haitian migrants from the group said they had been held by US immigration authorities for three or four days and then returned to Mexico without any documentation of their expulsion.

"They returned us with nothing, they threw away our clothes and my children's shoes," Johan Decopin, from Haiti, who was returned to Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday with her husband and three children, said.

"We asked for asylum but they told us no."

Immigrant advocates said as well as the expulsion of Haitians on Wednesday they had seen more South American and Caribbean migrants being returned to Mexico amid a rise in returns under Title 42 in some regions since Joe Biden took office in mid-January.

"Up to 140 people are being returned to Baja California each day," Esmeralda Siu, co-ordinator of the Pro-Migrant Defense Coalition, which represents a series of migrant shelters in the Mexican state, said.

"From what we're seeing they are returning Venezuelans, Colombians, and Peruvians (to Mexico)," she added.

Asked about the return of the Haitians, US Customs and Border Protection confirmed that 86 people were expelled to Mexico from the El Paso Sector, although it did not specify their nationalities.

Mexico's foreign ministry and federal immigration agency did not respond to requests for comment.

Taylor Levy, an immigration lawyer working with clients in El Paso, expressed confusion about the return of the Haitians.

"This violates the agreements between the US and Mexico as they have been announced by both governments," she said.

Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.

Sign up for our emails