Since WD arrived in Haiti on a deportation flight from the United States, he has not wanted to eat anything.
“
He is not well.
He's just waiting for death
, ”says his wife, Rodeline
*
, who was left in an immigrant shelter in Texas with their children, a five-year-old girl and a four-month-old baby.
WD's defense denounces that this Haitian father was deported by mistake or negligence by the Immigration Services (ICE) just a few days before Christmas, in the middle of the night and without prior notice, despite the fact that there was a request for a review of his asylum case pending and the agents were aware of it.
When asked by Noticias Telemundo about this complaint, an ICE spokesperson indicated that
the agency takes
the health and well-being of the immigrants in its custody
seriously
. "Before removing someone from the US, ICE conducts a thorough review of their case to ensure that due process has been granted and that they are not eligible for any additional form of redress at the time of removal," indicated by email.
Rodeline, the wife of the young Haitian deported in December, along with their two children.
Courtesy Rodeline D.
The forced return to Haiti is the end of a trip and an illusion that began in 2013, when the two young Haitians fled the island with the aim of reaching the United States, according to Rodeline told Noticias Telemundo.
For years they walked across the continent, suffering episodes of discrimination and crime, until they managed to cross the southern border in 2021.
"
The only hope was to get here,
so that we can work, to help our children and our family," says the 28-year-old Haitian girl.
"Now, I don't know what to do anymore," he laments with a broken voice.
"I don't know what to say to him," she says of her husband.
WD is one of the thousands of Haitians who have been deported in recent months under the Joe Biden Administration to a country where they have very little chance of getting ahead and where many of them are at risk of life.
From September 19 to December 23, the United States expelled more than 11,950 Haitians to Haiti on 111 flights, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), part of the United Nations.
Since he was deported,
the young Haitian "lives in terror
," says González.
WD fled the island after being stabbed in the stomach and threatened with death by members of a politically affiliated criminal group, González says, and now that he has been forced to return, he fears the worst.
For security reasons, the young man does not give interviews and is kept practically incommunicado.
González says that on December 31, he called him in fear from the phone of a trusted friend and told him that members of that gang had seen him on the street.
"
Ah, here you are.
Get ready
, ”one of them told him.
In the middle of the night and without warning
WD was being held at a Louisiana immigrant center, the River Correctional Center, with a deportation order due Dec. 22, his wife had been informed.
But Roseline, who is in a shelter in Houston, enlisted in early December the help of the Southeast Immigrant Liberation Initiative (SIFI), which made a request for a review of the case.
“He is a credible asylum seeker who fled because he had no other option.
His life was in grave danger due to his political stance, ”Mich González, who represents WD with the SIFI team, told Noticias Telemundo.
The defense of the migrant argues that the interview that ICE did to support that he feels what is called "credible fear" of returning to the country was
"plagued with errors" in the process
, for which a second questioning is requested or that a grant you asylum.
Frustration among asylum seekers in Texas at high rate of denial of cases in the state
Jan. 6, 202201: 40
On December 20, his defense contacted the ICE deportation officer assigned to WD explaining that there was a pending request to review the case and that a “
Z hold
” (an order that asks for pause the expulsion until the pending amparo is decided).
Noticias Telemundo had access to some of the emails between the WD defense and the Houston asylum office in which the office indicates that they were considering the review of the case and that
the ICE deportation agent had been notified
about it.
However, WD was deported on December 21, ahead of schedule and without prior notice being given to the defense.
"The family was devastated," says González, who must have given the news to WD's wife.
["The only thing I never wanted was for my daughter to grow up here": the anguish and plans of a family returned to Haiti]
González points out that
the Haitian father can and should be reunited with his family
.
"It is the duty of our Government to bring him back because this deportation violated our legal obligations under international law," he says.
At the moment, ICE has not returned its demand emails for what happened.
Scams and violence: "They beat him a lot"
Rodeline says that her husband resisted being transferred to the airport for deportation and complains that the agents responded with violence and tied him up.
"
Some people arrived with masks and weapons and threatened
that if he did not get on the plane they would kill him right there," says the 28-year-old Haitian girl.
“They were beaten a lot.
His body still hurts from how they hit him, ”he says.
A Honduran boy recounts the mistreatment he experienced in the custody of the immigration authorities
May 3, 202106: 35
[Scams on behalf of ICE: "If you pay $ 4,500, your brother will be free"]
The family reports other negative experiences with immigration agents during their short stay in the United States.
Rodeline says that on one occasion
they asked her for $ 300
to free her husband.
With extraordinary effort, he managed to make the transfer.
"I thought they were going to release him, I was so happy," he says, but he never heard from the alleged immigration agent again.
When last June she crossed the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, in northern Mexico, to Del Rio, Texas, Rodeline also assures that she was received with abuse.
"They put us under some canvas houses and took our clothes off," he says.
Then they waited with their little girl lying on the frozen floor for six hours.
“They treat you badly.
My God, I never saw people treating like this, ”he says.
They are very violent, I don't know why.
They talk to you like you don't deserve respect "
Rodeline young Haitian immigrant
The woman claims that she was taken by bus to the detention center with arm and foot shackles.
"They don't care if you are pregnant, if you are well or not," says the young Haitian woman, who was expecting her baby at the time.
“They are very violent, I don't know why.
They talk to you as if you do not deserve respect ", said Rodeline, who assures that the treatment was more degrading towards people" with some skin color ".
A more separated family: "It's inhuman"
“What happened to this family is unacceptably inhumane,” says Mich González, who represents WD. Not only does he refer to deportation, but to the burden they already brought from their way into the country and the terror of returning.
“He was threatened at gunpoint, and his father had his arm cut off.
That was all done by powerful criminal organizations, backed politically in Haiti, "he says.
A migrant woman holds her child as she waits in a makeshift camp with others after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico.
Thousands of families make the journey every month in the hope of obtaining asylum in the country.Eric Gay / AP
WD and Rodeline met in Brazil in 2013
, where they had each arrived from Haiti with the dream of going to the United States.
After the earthquake that devastated the island in 2010, her parents had decided to sell what little they had left to give them the opportunity to escape the hunger and violence of the country.
Little by little and on foot,
The couple traveled from one country to another on the continent, working, asking for help.
"We went through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama," says Rodeline.
“We crossed the water, we walked through the mountains, through the jungle… so many people died in the jungle.
And there our girl broke both feet in a fall, ”she says.
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras followed.
On that last trip
they took everything from them, "even the rubber flip-flops."
They suffered discrimination,
they were called "negritos" and denied medical care and getting on buses, says the young migrant.
[This is the dangerous jungle between Colombia and Panama where thousands of migrants risk getting to the US]
The family had to separate in Honduras in the hope of being reunited on US soil.
The young father stayed working while Rodeline continued on her way, pregnant and with the girl, until crossing from Ciudad Acuña to Texas in June 2021.
After being detained for days, under conditions of mistreatment according to the complaint, she obtained asylum in a shelter in Houston.
His second son was born there.
WD crossed the border at the same point, in the Del Rio, Texas area, on September 16.
He was part of the thousands who crowded that crossing into Texas in a humanitarian crisis that shocked the country with images of border agents on horseback chasing Haitian immigrants.
The young man was then arrested and transferred to Louisiana.
Migrants prepare to cross the Rio Bravo to Del Rio, Texas, from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, on Wednesday, September 22, 2021. Fernando Llano / AP
Rodeline says that her husband thought about taking his own life when he learned about a possible deportation.
"He told me that he had better go to his country dead if they return him," says the woman in Spanish, a language she learned on her long journey through Latin America.
The deportation of the young father was a difficult blow for all.
"
The girl is not eating anything, she cries all night, she loves her dad
," says Rodeline.
We cannot continue what has been a cruel and heinous year of mistreatment against Haitian refugees. "
Mich González defense of migrants
Thousands of Haitian families have suffered similar situations in the last year.
On December 22 alone, hours after WD was deported, three planes arrived in Haiti from the United States with 368 immigrants, including at least 30 children under the age of two, according to data provided by the Institute for Justice and Democracy. at Haiti.
“We cannot continue with what has been a truly cruel and egregious year of mistreatment against Haitian refugees,” says González.
Rodeline still has a trace of hope that they can fulfill the objective of their journey across the continent: "I hope he returns here so that we can work and
help children have a better future, because in my country there is no life
."
*
Rodeline's full name is safeguarded for the family's safety and privacy.
Her husband's initials, WD, are used to protect his identity and as this is a pending asylum case.
