New York Rep. Mondaire Jones and more than two dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CHC) are urging President Joe Biden to bring back unjustly deported immigrants, noting that “painful and enduring harms of unjust deportations have been imposed almost entirely on Black and brown immigrants, their families, and their communities.”
They note the horrific story of Paul Pierrilus, who was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and lived in the U.S. since he was a child. While Jones and advocates were initially successful in blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Pierrilus in the final hours of the previous administration, he was deported to Haiti the next month. He had never in his life set foot on Haiti.
“Paul entered the United States with his parents when he was just five years old,” legislators said. “He lived in the United States for 35 years, and worked as a financial consultant. Yet he found himself unjustly deported to Haiti, a country he was not born in and had never been to before—on the basis of a decades-old conviction for a non-violent offense. The Trump administration targeted Paul based on his Haitian ethnicity, in a premeditated plan to single out Black immigrants for deportation.”
Legislators write that Pierrilus is today “in hiding in Haiti, a nation whose humanitarian crisis is so dire that recently Secretary Mayorkas redesignated it for TPS—awaiting relief you have the power to provide.” In announcing Haiti’s redesignation for Temporary Protected Status in May, Mayorkas said, “Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources.” The nation has since been rocked into further chaos following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse this week.
“Or consider the stories of U.S. veteran Howard Bailey and long-time U.S. resident Kenault Lawrence. They, too, were unjustly deported—both to Jamaica, based on years-old marijuana convictions,” legislators continued. Bailey served in Operation Desert Storm, and won a National Defense Service Medal. “Nevertheless, he was deported based on an old, first-time marijuana offense that the governor of Virginia subsequently pardoned.” They write Lawrence’s “deportation robbed him of the chance to meet his newborn child, merely three months prior to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding his ground of deportation to be unlawful.”
Due to our nation’s racist and unjust criminal and immigration systems, Black immigrants make up 20% of deportations despite representing 7% of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., lawmakers said in the letter. “Despite these clear injustices and the compelling reasons to return both men to the United States, neither Howard nor Kenault have a meaningful chance to return home. They remain in exile in Jamaica,” lawmakers continued.
The letter comes as the Biden administration has formally announced plans to return to the U.S. deported military service members, as well as deported relatives. The administration is also reportedly mulling a review process that could set the stage for returning to the U.S. some immigrants unjustly deported by the previous administration, Julia Preston reported last month. “The reviews will proceed on a painstaking case-by case basis, officials said.” Advocates have also urged the administration to extend that review to immigrants unjustly deported by the Obama administration.
“For children growing up without their parents, single mothers and fathers struggling to cope with the loss of their life partners, and communities robbed of beloved members, each day that passes without justice is a day too many,” lawmakers conclude. “Building trust between the U.S. government and Black and brown communities devastated by decades of unjust deportations must begin with providing a meaningful opportunity for families and communities to be made whole again.”
They note the horrific story of Paul Pierrilus, who was born on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and lived in the U.S. since he was a child. While Jones and advocates were initially successful in blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Pierrilus in the final hours of the previous administration, he was deported to Haiti the next month. He had never in his life set foot on Haiti.
“Paul entered the United States with his parents when he was just five years old,” legislators said. “He lived in the United States for 35 years, and worked as a financial consultant. Yet he found himself unjustly deported to Haiti, a country he was not born in and had never been to before—on the basis of a decades-old conviction for a non-violent offense. The Trump administration targeted Paul based on his Haitian ethnicity, in a premeditated plan to single out Black immigrants for deportation.”
Legislators write that Pierrilus is today “in hiding in Haiti, a nation whose humanitarian crisis is so dire that recently Secretary Mayorkas redesignated it for TPS—awaiting relief you have the power to provide.” In announcing Haiti’s redesignation for Temporary Protected Status in May, Mayorkas said, “Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources.” The nation has since been rocked into further chaos following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse this week.
“Or consider the stories of U.S. veteran Howard Bailey and long-time U.S. resident Kenault Lawrence. They, too, were unjustly deported—both to Jamaica, based on years-old marijuana convictions,” legislators continued. Bailey served in Operation Desert Storm, and won a National Defense Service Medal. “Nevertheless, he was deported based on an old, first-time marijuana offense that the governor of Virginia subsequently pardoned.” They write Lawrence’s “deportation robbed him of the chance to meet his newborn child, merely three months prior to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling finding his ground of deportation to be unlawful.”
Due to our nation’s racist and unjust criminal and immigration systems, Black immigrants make up 20% of deportations despite representing 7% of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., lawmakers said in the letter. “Despite these clear injustices and the compelling reasons to return both men to the United States, neither Howard nor Kenault have a meaningful chance to return home. They remain in exile in Jamaica,” lawmakers continued.
The letter comes as the Biden administration has formally announced plans to return to the U.S. deported military service members, as well as deported relatives. The administration is also reportedly mulling a review process that could set the stage for returning to the U.S. some immigrants unjustly deported by the previous administration, Julia Preston reported last month. “The reviews will proceed on a painstaking case-by case basis, officials said.” Advocates have also urged the administration to extend that review to immigrants unjustly deported by the Obama administration.
“For children growing up without their parents, single mothers and fathers struggling to cope with the loss of their life partners, and communities robbed of beloved members, each day that passes without justice is a day too many,” lawmakers conclude. “Building trust between the U.S. government and Black and brown communities devastated by decades of unjust deportations must begin with providing a meaningful opportunity for families and communities to be made whole again.”