While the USA prepares to arrest the huge influx of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, it welcomes 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
The USA says it will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion. In the same breath, they are planning to arrest the surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border as it ends the Trump-era pandemic restriction Title 42 in response to the humanitarian outcry.
We speak with Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance about how Haitian refugees are treated and with award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa about the Haitians she met in a migrant caravan. Jozef says President Biden’s pledge to welcome Ukrainian refugees.
However, there is a heartbreaking display of the double standards faced by Haitian immigrants and other people of color seeking humanitarian relief in the United States.
“Why is it that when it comes to people of color, Black and Brown people, we must continue to push and beg to validate our humanity?” asks Jozef. Hinojosa has been reporting on migration for her podcast series “The Moving Border” and says the Biden administration is “appeasing” anti-immigrant forces in the U.S. by continuing rejections, deportations, and detentions at the southern border. “What we are seeing is … white supremacy in the context of refugees and desperate people,” says Hinojosa.
Is this white supremacy what is seen in USA today, to stop the people of color from entering the USA, while original natives to the area are facing difficulties? While the US government is warmly welcoming 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, they are pushing them away. It is understood the Ukrainian crisis is far worse, but this identical open reception is not given to other nations in the Middle East, Asia, or Africa facing war-like crises.
Haiti is a Caribbean country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic to its east. It is still recovering from a devastating 2010 earthquake.