Attorney General Kwame Raoul, along with District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, led a coalition of 15 attorneys general in filing a brief related to the treatment of thousands of Haitian refugees who sought aid along the United States’ Southern border. Raoul and the coalition are calling upon the federal government to allow those refugees to demonstrate their fear of persecution they would receive if forced to return to Haiti.
Raoul and the coalition filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia calling for Haitian refugees to be treated with dignity and compassion. The attorneys general are also urging the federal government to give Haitian nationals seeking refuge in the United States the same due process other immigrants and refugees receive by assessing each Haitian refugee on a case-by-case basis, rather than rushing the repatriation of Haitian refugees to a country that is recovering from a humanitarian crisis resulting from a devastating earthquake and tropical storm.
“As an attorney general who is the proud son of Haitian immigrants, I raised concerns related to the disparate treatment of Haitian immigrants at the Texas border. All individuals seeking refuge in our country deserve compassion, and Haitian refugees seeking asylum in the United States should have the same rights as other refugees to this country,” Raoul said. “As the son of a Haitian immigrant who was a community doctor, I have seen firsthand the contributions Haitian immigrants make to our communities, and I urge the federal government to evaluate Haitian refugees fairly and on a case-by-case basis.”
In 2021, thousands of refugees fled Haiti following a presidential assassination and the resulting political upheaval, as well as a massive earthquake that destroyed critical infrastructure. As refugees reached Del Rio, Texas, images began to emerge showing U.S. immigration officials using inhumane tactics, including charging at and attempting to whip Haitian refugees.
In the brief, Raoul and the coalition cite the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation into treatment of Haitian migrants, which found that Customs and Border Patrol agents used unnecessary force against refugees attempting to reenter the U.S. with food. Given those findings, Raoul and the coalition argue that Haitian refugees seeking asylum or other humanitarian assistance in the United States should be given the opportunity to demonstrate their fear of persecution or torture if forced to return to Haiti. Raoul and the coalition assert that Haitian refugees’ circumstances should be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
However, according to the allegations in the case, the federal government deprived thousands of Haitian refugees of their right to individual, fact-based assessments by continuing a mass expulsion policy that forced many Haitian refugees seeking asylum or humanitarian assistance to return to Haiti. Raoul and the attorneys general point out that the mass deportations deprived states of the valuable contributions refugees make. The brief also states that by subjecting refugees with strong asylum claims to the additional harm seen in Texas, including physical and emotional abuse, the government makes it more difficult for states to support refugees’ health, education and well-being when they relocate to U.S. communities.
Attorney General Raoul is leading the coalition in urging the federal government to treat Haitian refugees humanely as they seek asylum in the U.S., which means ensuring that they have a fair opportunity to pursue their asylum claims free from physical and verbal abuse.
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