New York – NYC Immigration Commissioner Raquel Batista said that the reports of mistreatment and mass deportation flights of Haitian migrants at the southern border are horrific and abhorrent.
In a statement, Batista said that “the Haitian migrants are refugees fleeing violence, devastation, and political turmoil, and should be treated as such with dignity and respect.”
More than 14,000 Haitians will be expelled from the United States in the coming weeks if the Biden Administration does not act swiftly to halt deportations and fairly process their claims for protection as U.S. and international law mandates.
On behalf of the Haitian community in NYC who are undoubtedly hurting from the images from the border and in Haiti, “we call on our federal partners to cease the deportations of Haitian refugees and address the human rights violations at the border immediately,” Batista said.
A report by the Voice of America revealed that about 30,000 Haitians massed at the border in a 17-day period starting September 9, many of them trekking through Mexico after escaping the rubble from the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti and living in South American countries for the last decade. While several thousand Haitians eventually returned to Mexico, the U.S. sent more than 2,000 on deportation flights back to the Caribbean nation. # (A press statement from the Office of Commissioner Batista)
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