After Del Rio, Calls for Fairer Treatment of Black Migrants
The New York Times
The treatment of Haitians apprehended in Del Rio, Texas, has galvanized civil rights groups and others to press for change.
WASHINGTON — Last fall, Joseph R. Biden Jr. made a stop in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood during his campaign, pleading with residents to register to vote. “I’ll give you my word as a Biden, I’ll be there,” he told them. “I’ll stand with you.”
But as the Biden administration ignored pleas from advocates and some lawmakers not to deport thousands of Haitians back to their broken country last month after they arrived en masse in Del Rio, Texas, many Haitian Americans say the man they turned out for in last year’s election is nowhere to be found.
“People absolutely felt abandoned when they saw the horrific images in Del Rio,” said Vanessa Joseph, the chairwoman of the Haitian American Voter Empowerment Coalition.
