The Center of Excellence for Immigrant Child Health and Wellbeing envisions a community where immigrant children and families have the human right to healthy and prosperous lives and decry the atrocious treatment of Haitian immigrants at the southern border. As healthcare workers committed to the health and wellbeing of immigrant children and their families, we believe Title 42* harms and further traumatizes children and families seeking protection.
We are outraged by the images shared by the media over the last few weeks depicting Haitian asylum seekers being brutally attacked by immigration enforcement officers and see this as a violation of human rights and traumatizing to Haitians as well as the broader Black community. Exclusionary, anti-immigrant policies and sentiments are deeply rooted in racism, and Black immigrants have and continue to be disproportionately impacted.
Racism and other forms of discrimination are the basis of these expulsions, Title 42 being a form of systemic racism. The images we have seen during these past weeks reveal harmful systems that have inequitably oppressed immigrant communities based on the social construct of race, especially those targeting Black communities. The Center of Excellence for Immigrant Child Health and Wellbeing denounces these horrific actions and stands in solidarity with Haitian migrants and Black communities.
* Title 42 is a public health law that gives the authority to bar people from entering the country during a health crisis and unjustly expels migrants before they can exercise their right to request asylum. In late September over 7000 Haitian children and families seeking asylum at the southern border were expelled on flights to Haiti, a country facing widespread violence that was also devastated by a major earthquake, tropical storm and the recent assassination of its president.
