THE PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATION FOR PROGRESS
PO BOX 22505
NEWARK, NJ 07101
www.njpop.org

SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE VIOLENT ABUSE OF HAITIAN MIGRANTS MUST STOP

(Statement by Lawrence Hamm, Chairman, People’s Organization For Progress, September 24, 2021)

On Thursday, September 23, 2021, as chairman of the People’s Organization For Progress I stood with elected officials and community leaders at a press conference organized by the National Haitian American Official Network(NHAEON)- NJ Chapter which was held at City Hall in East Orange, New Jersey.

The press conference was held to express outrage at the abominable treatment Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas experienced at the hands of border patrol agents and to demand changes to federal government immigration policies and procedures.

On Thursday night, the General Assembly of the People’s Organization For Progress voted to condemn the inhumane treatment and deportation of Haitians at the border, and salute the U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti Daniel Foote, acknowledging his resignation as indicative of the need for the Biden administration to develop an entirely new policy toward Haiti and Haitian migrants.

The scenes of border patrol agents whipping the black Haitian migrants was reminiscent of slave patrols and overseers chasing down enslaved black people during the era of slavery in the United States. The People’s Organization For Progress demands that those border patrol agents be fired immediately.

We demand that whippings and the use of horses in this manner cease immediately and that these practices be permanently prohibited. We demand that deportations of Haitians currently in progress be immediately halted and that Haitian migrants be granted asylum.

We call for solidarity with the Haitian people as they struggle for survival. They have been besieged by earthquakes, hurricanes, poverty, and political assassination of their president and grassroots leaders.

The People’s Organization For Progress demands self-determination for the island nation of Haiti and justice for the Haitian people wherever they are. The current crises that have befallen Haiti and its people didn’t suddenly occur. They are the end result of centuries of western and U.S. imperialism, slavery, racism, colonialism, and neocolonialism.

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