Seeking Asylum is a Human Right

According to the Haitian Times, “an influx of about 12,000 migrants are camped out at the Del Rio bridge, a number that had been accumulating for weeks, but ballooned in the past week with the arrival of 2,000 more migrants''. Thousands of Haitians seeking asylum have endured a long and arduous journey trekking across the continents to enter the United States of America in hope of a better life under the pretense that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) would be granted. Mayorkas, The Department of Homeland Security Secretary, commented that Haitians are “undertaking an irregular path to immigration that is perilous and will ultimately prove fruitless.” Meanwhile, Haitians arriving in Texas are being met by violent border patrol agents on horses equipped with whips inflicting physical and mental terror upon Haitian’s seeking safety. Other organizations at the border have commented that this form of violence is witnessed time and time again by border patrol agents employed both by the United States and Mexico. In 2021, in the state of Texas, on land that was stolen from indigenous people and built by enslaved Africans, we are witnessing a white man on a horse using a whip on a black man. Deportations began on Sunday, September 19th with the government’s objective to increase repatriation flights. The Biden Administration’s message to “migrants” that has occurred for months, according to the Haitian Times, is [Stay Home] “Do not attempt this journey. It will not succeed”. Amidst this atrocity brown children are still locked in cages. Black and Brown asylum seekers need protection.