Multiple groups are mobilizing around the issue, saying they feel migrants who have arrived at Del Rio in hopes of finding U.S. asylum are being treated inhumanely.
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Haitians deported from the U.S. recover their belongings on the tarmac of the Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021.(Joseph Odelyn)
By Hojun Choi
8:43 PM on Sep 21, 2021 CDT
Haitian American organizations in North Texas say they are frustrated over elected officials’ response to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border near Del Rio, saying that the thousands of Haitian migrants who have arrived there in recent days are receiving inhumane treatment.
Migrants, many of them gathered under the international bridge at Del Rio, have been waiting in squalid conditions for a chance at U.S. asylum. Images of law enforcement chasing them on horseback have helped put the crisis even more squarely in the international spotlight.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday blamed President Joe Biden for the humanitarian crisis, but the Biden administration has defended efforts to deport migrants from the area.
Plano resident Marie-Frantz Rene, who is president of the Haitian American Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said she’s angry and overwhelmed over the situation, saying she feels helpless to assist her fellow Haitians at the border.
“They have been through so much. This is a humanitarian issue, OK?” she said. “By sending them to Haiti, they are going to be in more misery. There is no education, no health care, no security in Haiti. Why would they not leave to try to go somewhere else?”
Rene said multiple North Texas groups are mobilizing to find ways to help the migrants. She said migrants need help with translations and means to find relatives already in the U.S. One of her biggest frustrations, she said, has been the lack of help from elected officials, both in Texas and Washington.
“We’re thinking about going to Austin to protest, because we’re not getting any answers,” said Rene. “We may have to go to the Capitol building in Austin. .... We do vote. So if they don’t want to hear our voices and know what is going on with this situation, we will answer to them when voting time comes.”
Rene estimated that about 3,000 people in Dallas-Fort Worth are of Haitian descent.
Earlier this month, the association held a fundraiser to help Haitians recover from the earthquake on Aug. 14 that killed some 2,000 people and injured over 12,000, based on estimates from ReliefWeb, an information service provided by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The magnitude 7.2 quake followed the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which plunged the Caribbean nation into political turmoil.
Rene said her organization is turning its focus to the U.S.-Mexico border, and is calling for empathy for the migrants, even from people without a connection to Haiti.
“Haiti is your neighbor, and this is how you treat your neighbor? You’re going to treat your neighbor like that?” Rene said.
Dallas resident Maggie Augustin, treasurer of Dallas Haitians United, said the group is looking for volunteers to travel to Houston, where the organization is expecting Haitian migrants from Del Rio to arrive to apply for asylee status.
Augustin described former President Donald Trump’s treatment of migrants at the border as treacherous, but she said she has been especially hurt by the Biden administration’s handling of the current crisis, saying that she feels he has broken his promise of better treatment for immigrants.
“At the end of the day, I have not seen that promise come to pass,” she said.
She, like Rene, said the images of Haitian migrants being chased down by horse-riding law enforcement has taken an emotional toll on her and the Haitian community.
“In all honesty, it’s so appalling. The type of treatment they’re getting is baffling, it’s ridiculous, it’s crazy,” she said.
Fort Worth resident Rose Pierre is a member of the Haitian Social Circle in Dallas. Pierre said that organization also has started shifting some of its humanitarian efforts to the border.
Pierre said 2021 has been particularly difficult for people of Haitian descent. She described her current emotions as similar to driving on a dirt road.
“One minute you’re OK, the next minute, you’re in a pothole, the next minute you don’t know what you’re going to get,” she said. “You try your best to try to prepare your mind for it, but you can never be 100% mentally or emotionally prepared because you don’t know what’s coming next.”
By Hojun Choi
8:43 PM on Sep 21, 2021 CDT
Haitian American organizations in North Texas say they are frustrated over elected officials’ response to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border near Del Rio, saying that the thousands of Haitian migrants who have arrived there in recent days are receiving inhumane treatment.
Migrants, many of them gathered under the international bridge at Del Rio, have been waiting in squalid conditions for a chance at U.S. asylum. Images of law enforcement chasing them on horseback have helped put the crisis even more squarely in the international spotlight.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday blamed President Joe Biden for the humanitarian crisis, but the Biden administration has defended efforts to deport migrants from the area.
Plano resident Marie-Frantz Rene, who is president of the Haitian American Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said she’s angry and overwhelmed over the situation, saying she feels helpless to assist her fellow Haitians at the border.
“They have been through so much. This is a humanitarian issue, OK?” she said. “By sending them to Haiti, they are going to be in more misery. There is no education, no health care, no security in Haiti. Why would they not leave to try to go somewhere else?”
Rene said multiple North Texas groups are mobilizing to find ways to help the migrants. She said migrants need help with translations and means to find relatives already in the U.S. One of her biggest frustrations, she said, has been the lack of help from elected officials, both in Texas and Washington.
“We’re thinking about going to Austin to protest, because we’re not getting any answers,” said Rene. “We may have to go to the Capitol building in Austin. .... We do vote. So if they don’t want to hear our voices and know what is going on with this situation, we will answer to them when voting time comes.”
Rene estimated that about 3,000 people in Dallas-Fort Worth are of Haitian descent.
Earlier this month, the association held a fundraiser to help Haitians recover from the earthquake on Aug. 14 that killed some 2,000 people and injured over 12,000, based on estimates from ReliefWeb, an information service provided by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The magnitude 7.2 quake followed the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, which plunged the Caribbean nation into political turmoil.
Rene said her organization is turning its focus to the U.S.-Mexico border, and is calling for empathy for the migrants, even from people without a connection to Haiti.
“Haiti is your neighbor, and this is how you treat your neighbor? You’re going to treat your neighbor like that?” Rene said.
Dallas resident Maggie Augustin, treasurer of Dallas Haitians United, said the group is looking for volunteers to travel to Houston, where the organization is expecting Haitian migrants from Del Rio to arrive to apply for asylee status.
Augustin described former President Donald Trump’s treatment of migrants at the border as treacherous, but she said she has been especially hurt by the Biden administration’s handling of the current crisis, saying that she feels he has broken his promise of better treatment for immigrants.
“At the end of the day, I have not seen that promise come to pass,” she said.
She, like Rene, said the images of Haitian migrants being chased down by horse-riding law enforcement has taken an emotional toll on her and the Haitian community.
“In all honesty, it’s so appalling. The type of treatment they’re getting is baffling, it’s ridiculous, it’s crazy,” she said.
Fort Worth resident Rose Pierre is a member of the Haitian Social Circle in Dallas. Pierre said that organization also has started shifting some of its humanitarian efforts to the border.
Pierre said 2021 has been particularly difficult for people of Haitian descent. She described her current emotions as similar to driving on a dirt road.
“One minute you’re OK, the next minute, you’re in a pothole, the next minute you don’t know what you’re going to get,” she said. “You try your best to try to prepare your mind for it, but you can never be 100% mentally or emotionally prepared because you don’t know what’s coming next.”
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