On Sept. 17, 2021, stories of thousands of Haitians on the U.S. border flooded news outlets. With the recent assassination of the Haitian President Jovenal Moise on July 7 by a group of 28 foreign mercenaries, followed by the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that caused at least 2,248 deaths and 12,763 injuries, the country has become economically, socially and politically unstable.
According to Julia Ainsly, NBC News Justice correspondent, the U.S. was aware of the immigration of Haitians to the U.S. border as early as July; however, the U.S. did not take any action regarding this matter mainly due to internal conflicts. The Republican party voted for deportation and the Democratic party voted for allowing the immigrants in. Now, the Biden administration has built a wall on the border with vehicles and is deporting everyone.
Maybe it was misinformation that led Haitians to migrate to the U.S. On March 2, 2020, in his campaign in Texas, Biden said, “We must live by values that embrace immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. Let’s not slam the door on those fleeing persecution, violence and oppression.” What Biden was perhaps trying to say is that his administration wouldn’t deport those who were already in the country seeking asylum, unlike what the Trump administration intended to do.
Once the Haitians arrived on the U.S. border, not only were they told to leave, but they were also greatly mistreated, beaten and discriminated against. A picture of two white Border Patrol agents on horses has recently gone viral because of its similarity to the treatment of enslaved people in the history of the U.S. The agents have been accused of using whips against individuals who were carrying water and food for their families.
Let’s assume that Haitans’ showing up on the U.S. border was not the fault of this government and the country has no capacity to let them in, but the treatment of them on the border is a true reflection of the values some Americans still hold, the failure of the education system and the failure within the U.S. government. Like many other governments across the world, no country is perfect and that should not be our expectation of the U.S.; however, not many other countries hold as much power and influence over people’s lives as this country does. With power comes responsibility, and the government of this country cannot ignore their responsibilities. Starting from its very own domestic conflicts to international engagement, the U.S. needs to get its problems together.
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