Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement as the crisis of the United States' expulsion of and tactics against Haitian migrants seeking asylum continues, and after the United States special envoy to Haiti resigned in protest of the administration's inhumane response.
"I had hoped that when we got rid of the former President, we would also be done with the inhumane, anti-immigrant and anti-Haitian sentiment and policies that pervaded his administration. Unfortunately, the world now watches as President Biden and Vice President Harris oversee the violent rejection of Haitians seeking asylum as the island is facing compounding crises of political and natural disasters. Armed with makeshift whips, the administration is exacerbating, rather than resolving, a humanitarian crisis.
"These are the situations that our relief, refugee and protected status policies were created for, and yet instead of diplomatic and humanitarian tools rooted in compassion, this administration is using enforcement tools rooted in xenophobia and a system propped up on anti-Blackness. Deportations are the wrong approach both morally and situationally. The United States has a moral imperative to stop Title 42 expulsions, extend the opportunity for asylum to the people who have come here from the island, and expedite humanitarian aid to Haiti for the people who haven’t."