Cre 151 Del Rio and the Call for Migrant Justice

 

CRE 151 Del Rio and the Call for Migrant Justice

1.      Violent removal of Haitian asylum seekers from encampments in Del Rio by border patrol agents on horseback demonstrates the centrality of racism and anti-Black racism.

2.      Border established following U.S. – Mexican War -instrument of power and control.

3.      Images of mounted border agents brings back comparisons of slave patrols that emerged in early 18^th century in U.S. to enforce slave codes to catch escapees and prevent “Black revolts

4.      These groups evolved into groups such as Texas Rangers

a.      Who prosecuted war against the Karankawa, Cherokee and Comanche tribal nations

b.      Pursued fugitive slaves into Mexico

c.      Established control over ethnic Mexican communities

5.      In 1835 they formally became a law-enforcement agency -known as Texas Rangers

a.      Created a culture of policing in the service of white supremacy

6.      Border control founded in 1924 -recruited directly from Texas Rangers/incorporating their habits of using border security to enforce white racial primacy

7.      Many agents of borderland chapters of the Ku Klux Klan

8.      Whips, ropes, and horses -marshalled to inflict pain and fear

9.      Del Rio photographs provoked important dialogue about the rights and protections owed to migrant members of the Black Diaspora

10.  2021…Because of Congressional Black Caucus insistence, White House expressed concern about Border Patrol’s actions considered to be both discriminatory and unlawful

11.  Reminded that we as a nation committed to Haitian asylum seekers and members of Haitian diaspora

12.  Concluded May 2021 with announcement of new Temporary Protected Status for Haitians…shortly after assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moisse and major earthquake that destabilized the country.

13.  Inspector general of Department of Homeland Security declined to conduct an investigation

14.  Referred to Custom and Border Protection office of professional responsibility

15.  Investigation found that many -see announcement

16.  Biden demanded accountability ..calling it horrible and announced the suspension of the use of horse patrols in migrant management in Del Rio -but still photos surfaced months later of similar activity by agents on horseback

17.  Mexico responds by capturing Haitians, Cubans, Central Americans and South American

a.      Women and children

b.      Often beat to break up migrant caravans

c.      Mexico deported about three hundred migrants a day to southern border with Guatemala

                                                              i.      Haitians among them

                                                             ii.      Part of partnership with U.S.

                                                           iii.      Representatives of several thousand Haitians encamped outside sports arena in Tapaculo protested their subjection to hunger, assaults, and unsanitary conditions.

                                                           iv.      Reinstatement of Trump era Migrant Protocols _Remain in Mexico will only increase displacement of Haitians and other vulnerable migrants to similar confinement sites in Mexico.

d.      Human rights abuses and failures attached to Biden Administration

e.      There is no law which requires that asylum seekers -those fleeing political violence and natural disaster should be met by militarized cordon in south Texas

f.        We have normalized the use of excessive force against Haitians. The so-called wall of steel. Hundreds of Border Patrol cars in a miles long wall of steel.

g.        

18.  The violence on the border -imposed privation/social isolation on those deemed alien and illegal

19.  Family separation, physical and sexual abuse, prolonged captivity

20.  There appears to be no end to the suffering. Even as they fil lawsuits against the federal government…as “lawful violence” continues to target migrants and many Americans shrug as this is needed to deal with th emigrant crisis.

21.  Black Civil right organizations and migrant organizations led a broad campaign for racial justice

22.  UndocuBlack Network issued a statement calling for an end to the war on Black Migrants.

23.  Leaders for Just Immigration, the NAACP, The National Urban League and other groups wrote Biden denouncing his Administrations mistreatment of Haitian refuges.

These social movements remind us that there is a long history of U.S. Black migrant-led campaigns to end deportations along with the large number of debates that refuse to depict Haitian migrants as foreign -and the call for racial justice based in principles of equity and abolition.

24.  Migrants have crafted powerful, affirmative responses to failures of immigration and economic policies

25.  Migrants have made their journeys into protest marches against the migrant-hunting staged in the face of extraordinary forces marshaled against them

26.  In the height of th Trump era -Migrant-led organizations -including the National Day Laborers Organizing Network -drafted the Migrant Justice Platform -see announcement

27.  Conceived of a open-source unity blueprint for reconceptualizing migration governance.