Black Organizers respond to the targeted removal of Haitians at the border while pointing out the hypocrisy with Afghan immigrants

Ferguson, Mo — This week at the Del Rio, Texas border, only the Haitians attempting to apply for refugee status were captured by border patrol on horseback and then put on planes back to Haiti. These acts of terror against Black lives got us asking what's the difference between the 19th century and the 21st century. These images look just like slave catchers illegally rounding up free Black people under the Slave Fugitive Act of the 1850s. At the very same time Haitians are being terrorized, the US is setting aside billions of dollars and making accomodations for Afghanistan refugees.

The US and France should be held responsible for Haitians becoming refugees in the first place. In 1825, France started to tax Haiti for their independence that ended up totaling $21 billion in today’s dollars. While paying taxes to France, Woodrow Wilson and the US invaded Haiti in 1915 and colonized this country until 1934. This long history of White terror along with several earthquakes, the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and other events are what led to Haitain refugees at the Del Rio, Texas border. On US soil, Biden carried out Trump’s immigration policy, Title 42, and deported Haitians.

But this is a part of a broader conversation that needs to be had at the International level around anti-blackness in foreign policy, predatory lending and debtors, and foreign mercenaries dressed up in missionary and aid specialist clothing. The only remedy we see to ensure that no Black immigrants show up at the borders of any Western country again is to mandate that countries like the US, France, Germany, Belgium and many others pay the descendants of enslaved Africans all around the world reparations.

It is unacceptable for the US, France and these other countries to go around destabilizing Black nations and not expect for these citizens to one day end up at your doorsteps.

To the many Haitian immigrants who have and will be returning home soon, we pray to the ancestors that you go back home and lead a powerful revolution that returns power back to the people of Haiti. We pray that you govern with the feeling of being turned away at the border on your mind everyday when dealing with the US and other racist nations. And I hope that you and every other Black immigrant here and abroad know what Black people have known in this country since its inception, that the white man’s American dream is a Black man’s nightmare. Haitian family, you are not alone, your African brothers and sisters around the world stand in solidarity with you.

And to the Biden administration and the Democratic Party, good luck in the 2022 midterm elections without us because we won’t forget.

Signed,

The Black organizers who will remember this in 2022