The White House had secretly created a new agency within the State Department, the Office of Remigration. While the name of the agency is troubling enough – “remigration” is a term used by European White Nationalists as a euphemism for expelling people of color – the purpose of the new agency shines a horrid light on this administration’s complete disregard for human rights. The purpose of the agency has been to pay millions of dollars to 3rd countries to receive deportees from the U.S. As of June, the administration had already pledged over $410 million to 31 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America, to take in deportees that have no connection to those countries. Several of the countries that the agency has reached agreement with are condemned for their human rights abuses in reports from the State Department itself, abuses that usually make these nations ineligible for foreign assistance. The administration is using these new contracts exactly because they are not subject to the same oversight that is supposed to provide guardrails for foreign aid.
ICE has begun to hide the location of detainees with final removal orders from their lawyers and others, according to new reporting from the Associated Press. Beginning on September 15th, ICE removed individuals with final removal orders from their online detainee locator system, making it nearly impossible for lawyers and family to find them, file an appeal, or even know which country the person might be in. ICE currently detains about 65,000 people across the country, and it is estimated that about 30% have a final removal order.
DHS has continued its violent operations around the country, justifying the public mistrust in how this administration is conducting immigration enforcement. On Sunday, an ICE officer shot a 28-year-old Venezuelan man in Austin, Wilber Rafael Garces Perez. Following the shooting, Garces Perez was taken to a hospital for initial treatment, but was then quickly transferred to a detention center with a bullet still in his spine. He was then taken back to the hospital after a doctor recommended removing the bullet. The officer who pulled the trigger had been issued with a body cam, but was not wearing it at the time of the shooting. Garces Perez had entered the country using the CBP One app to apply for asylum, but had missed an immigration court appointment when the notice was sent to the wrong address.
Michigan politicians are seeking answers after the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez in Grand Rapids, also on Sunday. His death occurred in a car accident following an attempted traffic stop by ICE agents, yet the Grand Rapids police chief has complained that his investigators are not able to get full information about the accident from DHS. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered state authorities to conduct a full review of the accident while DHS has yet to comment. Coronado Juarez was a 36-year-old construction worker from Guatemala.
Sunday also saw the violent assault of a US citizen by ICE officers in a Chicago suburb. ICE officers mistook the unidentified African-American for an immigrant, but the man refused to identify himself, leading the officers to assault him. According to one witness, the agents had the man on the ground with a knee in his back and “beating up on him”. Another witness said that the officers took the man’s documents from his wallet, confirmed that he was a US citizen, then left the documents scattered on the ground. DHS claims that it “left the scene without further incident” after they confirmed his identity. Local police are investigating the attack.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report earlier this week detailing the conditions that Haitian deportees face in their home country. More than 450 Haitians have been sent home since the end of TPS in July, and flights are now arriving once a week at Cap-Haïtien airport on the country’s northern coast. Deportation flights cannot arrive at the airport in Port-au-Prince because criminal gangs have made the airport unsafe. Many of those deported were detained by ICE before the end of TPS and still have pending asylum claims in the US. Those deported had largely left the country due worsening violence following the 2010 earthquake and 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, but they have been forcibly returned to a country that cannot support or protect them. HRW makes a number of recommendations to ease the crisis, including calling on the administration to halt deportations to Haiti and for the US Congress to pass S 4818, which would extend TPS for Haiti into 2029.
