Biden Is Replaying a Forgotten U.S. Atrocity Against Haitian Refugees

Jeffrey S. Kahn for Slate (Biden Is Replaying a Forgotten U.S. Atrocity Against Haitian Refugees) reminds us of the histortyof U.S. mistreatment of Haitians.  Here are the first two paragraphs of his piece:

“In spite of the change in administrations this past January, hardline immigration officials have continued to weaponize fears about COVID-19 as cover for the near-complete dismantling of asylum protections along the southern U.S. border. Haitians have become the public face of this program in recent months after the Department of Homeland Security sent thousands of them back to Haiti’s violence-torn capital, Port-au-Prince, without so much as an interview to determine if they might face persecution on their return.

This is not the first time that Haitian asylum seekers have been ensnared by high-sounding public health declarations and arcane quarantine regulations. The decision to imprison several hundred HIV-positive Haitians at Guantánamo Bay during the early 1990s stands out as one of the most embarrassing incidents in recent U.S. immigration history. The cruelty and cynical justifications that gave us HIV quarantine at Guantánamo have re-emerged in the arguments for Title 42 expulsions. Dwelling on these parallels can bring into sharper focus what this latest asylum ban is and what its defenders are peddling to the American public—a bad faith reliance on pandemic fears to shirk our legal duty to asylum seekers at the border.”

KJ