Faith Leaders to Biden: Ground the Death Planes

Washington, DC – Haitian families, some with babies as young as one. Cameroonian and Angolan asylum-seekers who say they would rather die than be sent back. Honduran families forced to reside in Dilley immigration jail for 18 months-plus without a fair asylum hearing. A grandfather of 8 U.S. citizens who lived in the U.S. for 30 years. A witness to the El Paso massacre, working with law enforcement and on track to receive a U visa. 

What do they all have in common? They have all been deported–or are in the process of being deported today or tomorrow–by the Biden Administration. 

“It’s been two weeks since the Biden Administration issued a new vision for immigration enforcement, yet nothing has changed,” said Peniel Ibe, Policy Engagement Coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee and IIC Co-Chair. “The Biden Administration deported hundreds of people under Trump-era policies it promised to undo. There is no excuse. The Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued in a politically-motivated lawsuit only affects one part of the DHS memo. The Department is still supposed to ensure every case meets the new standard before deporting anyone. The administration can decide to not deport anyone, TRO aside. Morality, humanity, and international obligations require the Administration to follow through. Otherwise, the U.S. is chartering death planes.” 

Added Elissa Diaz, Policy and Advocacy Manager at Church World Service and IIC Co-Chair: “We urge the Senate to approve Alejandro Mayorkas’ nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security, but the Administration must stop the death planes immediately. The responsibility lies with the President, who issued a new set of policies on Day 1 that still has not been implemented. These deportations do not have to happen and must not happen. Our faith calls us to hold all of our leaders accountable to respecting the dignity and humanity of every person.” 

Ibe pointed out the incongruence of deporting Black immigrants to poverty, torture, and death at the start of Black History Month. “President Biden himself pledged to bring a ‘racial equity lens’ to every aspect of his administration. Deporting refugees to Haiti and African countries, after they were denied a fair asylum process by the previous administration, is hypocritical and deadly.”

Diaz, an expert in refugee policy, added: “There are also international obligations the Biden Administration is ignoring. The people we are talking about were denied asylum under the system set up by Trump, which was rigged to ensure almost no one could make a claim, and if they did, they could not win. Under the principle of non-refoulement, invoked in treaties signed by the U.S. after the Holocaust, the Biden Administration cannot deport people to countries where they face torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, and other irreparable harm.”

Background

In the waning weeks of the Trump Administration, deportation of Black immigrants from Haiti, Jamaica, Cameroon, Guinea, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, and other countries, as well as families detained for over a year in the Dilley immigration jail, continued. ICE agents even rushed to deport people to Mauritania, Gambia, and other countries on Trump’s last full day in office, no doubt anticipating a policy change under the Biden Administration. 

But so far, “business” has mostly continued as usual for ICE. Despite an Executive Order and DHS implementation memo that should have dramatically curtailed deportations, recent days have seen the expulsion of Haitian families with children as young as one; the deportation of Felipe Ortega, a grandfather of 8 U.S. citizens who resided in the U.S. for thirty years; and the forced removal of Rosa, a witness in the El Paso massacre who helped law enforcement investigate the attack and has a U-visa certification. On February 2 and 3, deportations/expulsions are planned to Honduras, Haiti, Cameroon, Angola, and other countries. 

Witness at the Border reports that last week alone, twenty flights carried people back to seven different countries they had previously fled, consistent with the prior 6-week average during the Trump administration. In total, ICE has flown over 25 charter flights removing people from the U.S. since Biden’s inauguration.

Although a politically-motivated lawsuit and Temporary Restraining Order paused one part of the new Administration’s policy, most of the DHS implementation memo remains in effect. Yet Biden’s ICE continues to deport asylum-seekers who should not be removed according to that policy and international law. The Biden Administration must immediately halt these deportations and build a new asylum process that meets international protection standards. We are obligated to ensure each asylum-seeker receives a full and fair consideration of their cases before sending them out on death planes.

Many human rights violations have been brought to light in recent deportations to Africa and other places. Following are some of the shocking experiences people have endured after deportation. Keep in mind, these are only the few that have been brought to light.  [Content Warning: Human Lives in Extreme Danger] 

  • After being physically assaulted in order to obtain their signatures on stipulated orders of removal, many Cameroonians were deported this fall. They fled specific and credible threats against their lives in Cameroon, and faced arrest and possible extra-judicial murder if returned. To this day, many of those deported remain missing-neither their lawyers nor friends and family members have heard from them. Others remain in hiding. 
  • Reporting for The Guardian, Julian Borger wrote: “One of those due to be deported [in November], Daniel, said his brother had been shot in 2019 by Cameroonian security services searching for him, and his father had been crippled by torture in prison. His other siblings are missing. ‘I will be killed by the Cameroon government,’ Daniel (a pseudonym used to protect his family) told the Guardian by telephone from Prairieland.”
  • Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) wrote in a letter to DHS: “The situation [in Cameroon] so dire that some of the family members of those being removed tell me that their loved ones ‘would rather die in ICE custody than be deported to Cameroon.’ Many of those scheduled to be removed on November 10 have lost family members in Cameroon at the hands of the police because they dared to seek asylum in the U.S.”
  • Der Spiegel reports that several refugees deported to Mauritania and Cameroon were arrested upon arrival, including Mauritanians deported on the last day of the Trump Administration. One of those arrested was able to speak to a reporter through confidential means. He said: “I’m afraid that the Mauritanian government will kill me. My life is over.” He contracted tuberculosis in ICE custody. Locked in a dirty room in Mauritania, he said: “I haven’t had any medication for five days, and I’m in pain. I’m worthless to the Mauritanian officials, they treat me like a slave. Because I’m black.”
  • Upon leaving the airport in Guinea after his deportation in December 2020, Mory Keita and another deported man were robbed at gunpoint. Mory is a target because he looks and talks like an American. He said: “I think they were trying to kidnap us and get some money because they think that we just came from the United States and we have some kind of money. But I don’t have any money. When ICE dropped me off they didn’t give me anything. They didn’t even give me a penny. No ID, nothing.”
  • Even under the Trump Administration, the U.S. Government knew these deportations were wrong. The U.S. Trade Representative issued sanctions against Cameroon and Mauritania because of his horrible record on human rights. Yet, deportations continued, and the operations themselves were carried out as clandestinely as possible. 
  • Said Tom Cartwright, who tracks deportation flights for Witness at the Border: “With each deportation to Africa, ICE and Omni [one of the companies carrying out the deportations] take more steps to hide their flights. This time it was under the cover of night. The other steps ICE and Omni have taken to make these flights as opaque as possible is that they now do not file a public flight plan, not even in the US. They mask the flight number and plane number from public view. All to hide their shame.”

The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of over 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants. 

Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm

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