Image source: Haiti Liberte
Statement by the Socialist Workers Movement (Dominican Republic)
The Democratic Party has once again taken off its mask and shown its imperialist, human rights-violating and racist bourgeois face. The government of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has launched a repressive and deportation operation against the thousands of refugees who have crossed the border with Mexico into the state of Texas, mostly Haitians but also Cubans, Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and other nationalities from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Dominicans.
The shocking images of border guards charging their horses and brandishing their reins with whips against migrants carrying water and food have traveled the world, destroying the “democratic” and “progressive” image with which the U.S. government tried to present itself in its first months in office. The U.S. government shows its double standards, denying entry to people from countries such as Nicaragua and Venezuela, people towards whom it displays a permanent demagogy and false solidarity due to the political friction it has with their governments.
In the case of Haitian refugees, the treatment is even more brutal and openly racist. We cannot forget the direct responsibility of the US government in the economic, political and social crisis that Haiti is suffering by backing coup d’états and military occupations, the last of which culminated in 2017. It also supported the de facto government of Jovenel Moïse and now supports the de facto government of Ariel Henry, exercising a semi-colonial tutelage through the Core Group.
Moreover, the government of Biden and Harris protects some of the intellectual authors of the assassination of Moïse, assassinated by Colombian mercenaries in July. These are the heads of the companies CTU and Worldwide Capital Lending Group, based in Florida.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled in June to Mexico and Guatemala to warn that those who tried to migrate to the U.S. would be intercepted and returned to their countries, ignoring the right to refuge and asylum. The Mexican government has also been playing a repressive role after President López Obrador agreed with Trump to attack migrants crossing Mexican territory to the US. As Obama has shown—he holds the record for the highest number of deportations in his eight years in office—the treatment of immigrants by liberal capitalist governments is as brutal as the policies of the Republican right and has included practices such as the prolonged detention of thousands of people in ICE concentration camps.
We demand the release of all people deprived of their liberty for migrating to the United States. We also reject the statements made by Dominican President Luis Abinader in New York, assuring that “what the U.S. is going through, we go through every day”. His attempt to victimize himself, while his government also violates human rights and applies racist policies against immigrants is ridiculous. As long as the U.S. continues to exploit and plunder the region, thousands of people will continue to be forced to migrate north every month. That is why we join the voices internationally calling for an end to deportations, police brutality and racist violence by the Biden and Harris administration against immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America, South America and other regions.
The U.S. should recognize the refugee status of all those who have gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge on the U.S. side of the border and respect their right to asylum. No more repression! Freedom for all detained immigrants! Refuge and asylum now!