U.S. Border Patrol rounds up Haitians like cattle​

Washington, September 24 (RHC)-- Images of U.S. border agents in cowboy hats snapping reins like whips atop horses as they try to push Haitian migrants back across the Rio Grande River into Mexico drew widespread condemnation this week.

They also heaped mounting pressure on President Joe Biden to account for -- and reverse -- his administration’s plan to expel the majority of the more than 14,000 Haitians who have been camped under a bridge in southern Texas in hopes of getting asylum in the United States.

Immigration advocates and international experts have said the country’s “obscene” expulsion policy and its treatment of the Haitian asylum seekers may be a violation of international law, while the U.S. special envoy to Haiti resigned over what he called the “inhumane” decision to deport them.

But advocates also noted that the scenes at the southern border were starkly different to the welcome that thousands of Afghan refugees received in the U.S. just weeks ago, fuelling more criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

“When you contrast the welcome mat that was rolled out for many Afghan refugees who are deserving – of course – of our support and resettlement, with the deplorable treatment of Black migrants on our own soil, it is just an unfathomable contrast,” said Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, an immigrant advocacy organisation.