On International Migrants Day, reimagining migration beyond imperialism, militarism and racism

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[Editor’s note: In recognition of the International Migrants Day (Dec. 18), Just Security is publishing this Saturday special. Interested readers can also explore our extensive past coverage of immigration, migration, and refugee issues.]

“Don’t come. Don’t come.” Few will forget the June 2021 press conference when Vice President Kamala Harris – a child of immigrants – advised potential migrants to forgo their trip to the United States.

In an era of travel bans and nationalistic sentiments, the vice president’s comments unwittingly endorsed growing global hostility to migrants. The warning also highlighted a deeply rooted problem: the failure of the US government to truly appreciate its role in shaping the conditions that force emigration.

As we mark International Migrants Day on December 18, the international community – and in particular the United States – must address a legacy of imperialism that contributes to involuntary migration while excluding migrants more effectively than any physical barrier. .

In the United States, this legacy has manifested itself more recently in exclusionary policies such as Migrant Protection Protocols and Title 42 Public Health Code, which perpetuate a history of cruel treatment against people in the South, including especially Haitian migrants. It is high time that the United States reinvented migration policies that stop reinforcing imperialism and begin to atone for the wrongs of its past.

When migratory “crises” are not sudden, but orchestrated

The United States has a reputation for undermining the sovereignty and stability of post-colonial states through imperialism and militarism, to feign shock at the human costs and the effects of migration.

American interventions in Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia have all resulted in waves of migration. The evacuation of tens of thousands of Afghans following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has drawn comparisons with the resettlement of Vietnamese populations in the 1970s. Much of the migration “crisis” in Central America is the direct result of US destabilization efforts, including government overthrow during the Cold War and the catastrophic war on drugs. Time and again, US interventions and attempts at world domination preceded the unrest in the Global South. All too often, the ensuing waves of migration are largely greeted by unwelcoming borders in the Global North.

A particularly striking example is the barrage of crises in Haiti, a nation that cemented its independence from France at the turn of the 19th century to become the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere – and the first to abolish slavery. Threatened by this precedent, the United States is on the list of nations that have contributed to Haiti’s fragility through interventionist coups, direct invasions and crippling economic sanctions.

In the last century alone, the United States created civil unrest and intensified economic disparities in Haiti during its nineteen years of occupation, which crafted a US-led Haitian army, an election presidential election, legislative manipulation of governance and land rights, and the seizure of Haitian finances. At the end of the 20th century, the United States continued its interventionist strategies in Haiti with the so-called Operation Uphold Democracy, which temporarily restored a democratically elected leader on the condition that Haiti adopts neoliberal economic policies that ensure its impoverishment. continued.

These abuses of foreign policy in Haiti are not the result of chance. The US policy of “backyard imperialism” intentionally perpetuated destabilization in Haiti in order to preserve institutions – slavery, economic conditions of exploitation and forced globalization – based on anti-black racism, white supremacy and the refusal to “forgive Haiti for being Black.”

The testimonies of Haitian nationals themselves tell that past interventions directly orchestrated the common precursors of forced migration. This long and troubling history continues in today’s politics.

Strategies for concealing migration barriers

The United States too often develops migration policy on the back of its hand, motivated by xenophobia and disguised as necessary measures to deal with perceived emergencies. A more effective response to migration patterns would be to develop immigration initiatives that tackle forced movements resulting from years of oppression.

The Biden administration’s dependence on Title 42 of the Public Health and Welfare Code is a prime example of exclusion policies masked as necessity. Title 42, invoked by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic, is misinterpreted as allowing the US government to regulate immigration during public health emergencies to prevent the spread of disease by deporting asylum seekers and migrants.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in attempt to deny title 42 international and domestic violations maintains Biden administration did not adopt “public health imperative” as immigration measure .

Yet Title 42 categorically functions as a barrier to migration. Since its implementation in April 2020, 60.5% of all border encounters have resulted in deportation. The expulsion of asylum seekers and migrants violates non-refoulement laws – protection against forced return in situations of persecution or torture – and denies the right to due process to seek asylum.

Likewise, under the 2019 Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or Stay in Mexico policy, the United States is forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until they appear in a United States court. for their hearing. Throughout the implementation of the policy, migrants have risked or suffered rape, kidnapping, violent assault and death while being subjected to the MPP.

Despite the Biden administration’s first attempt to end the policy, on December 6, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security reinstated the MPP by court order. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has since upheld the lower court’s rejection of the Biden administration’s termination of the MPP.

The Biden administration has avoided taking responsibility for the prosecution of the MPP, citing that court injunctions are forcing its reinstatement. U.S. officials say negotiations with Mexico resulted in a reformed MPP meant to honor the rights and human dignity of migrants. A mistaken belief. The first days of reintegration were marked by grave danger and affronts to the dignity of migrants – the inevitable result of a policy based on the denial of the basic rights of vulnerable communities.

At its core, Title 42 and the MPP are inhumane immigration policies rooted in white supremacy.

Deliberate exclusion of Haitian migrants

On the southern border of the United States, the xenophobic and militarized realities of the MPP and Title 42 have had serious consequences for Haitian nationals – a population that has suffered from a long history of contempt and anti-blackness.

Faced with the migration of thousands of Haitians to Del Rio, Texas, in September 2021, the Department of Homeland Security dispatched hundreds of agents in its militarized response. The international community has been stunned by the images of customs and border patrol officers on horseback, at least some beating migrants with the reins, evoking one of the most genocidal and racially violent eras of the black experience. These acts of racism and militarism went hand in hand with the government’s expulsion of Haitians seeking refuge under Title 42.

Since September, the United States has enacted the forced deportation of more than 10,000 Haitian nationals under Title 42. In acts of violence, the government has returned Haitians at risk to the same country as the administration. designated in early August as dangerous for return because of humanitarian insecurity and violence.

The administration’s expansion of the MPP to the entire Western Hemisphere – Brazilians, Haitians, and Jamaicans were left out of politics in its first iteration – only strengthened U.S. resistance to Haitian migration. The United States extends this policy in defiance of the discrimination, abuse, and violence Haitians face in Mexico by Mexican authorities and other parties.

The Biden administration should prioritize stability in Haiti. Instead, US migration policies are compounding Haiti’s political, economic, and environmental disasters.

The United States has deliberately rejected migration policies that could offer recourse to asylum seekers and Haitian migrants. Instead, the Biden administration maintained Title 42 and expanded the MPP. It is time for the United States to end these atrocities.

The United States should develop redemptive migration policies

US migration policies must shift from a paradigm of supremacy. This reform must involve a reassessment of the imperialist and militarist strategies which have historically weakened the countries of the South and led to migratory patterns.

In addition, the structure of redemptive migration policies must reflect the specific imprints of imperialism. In the case of Haiti, the legacy of racist and xenophobic practices in the United States demands a proportionately redemptive migration policy.

There are clear and fair responses the United States could adopt immediately to advance redemptive migration policies, especially for Haitian nationals:

Maintain access to asylum protections; Stop repatriation flights to Haiti; Extend entry protections, such as delayed forced departure, temporary protection status or humanitarian parole to Haitian nationals; End the MPP and Title 42; and Hold federal agents responsible for cruel and racist enforcement.

As countries like the United States issue statements on International Migrants Day, praising their commitments to migrant communities, they must recognize their responsibility to create reasonable migration policies.

Image: A Haitian migrant carrying a baby crosses the Rio Bravo to seek political asylum in the United States, in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, December 6, 2021. – The United States has reimplemented the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) program, also known as Remain in Mexico, on Dec.6 after a court order. (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ / AFP via Getty Images) Filed under:

asylum, Decolonization, Haiti, Immigration, Mexico, migration, race, Racial justice, Refugee convention, Refugees, undocumented, white supremacy

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