Two of the Cameroonian asylum-seekers who said in a new civil rights complaint that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents tortured them in order to coerce them into deportation were nearly expelled from the country on Wednesday, until they were pulled off their flight at the very last moment as an investigation into the complaint now begins, NBC News reports.
The two are part of a group of eight Black immigrants who say ICE and private prison officers in Mississippi physically assaulted them into signing their deportation papers, leaving one man with broken fingers. “Others who alleged abuse were never taken to the airport, their lawyers told NBC News,” the report continued. “It is not clear, however, if any of the eight have been deported.” Other Black immigrants on the flight, however, were deported.
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ICE leaders, including newly installed Acting Director Tony Pham, ignored pleas from Congressional leaders to stop the deportations. They wrote that “[r]ecent allegations have been raised that some of these individuals were coerced into signing documents effectuating their removal.”
“According to the advocates who interviewed the eight detainees mentioned in the complaint,” House Homeland Security Chair Bennie G. Thompson and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass said in a statement. “ICE and contract employees deployed pepper spray, physical restraints, and other use of force measures to obtain the signature or fingerprint of detainees on travel documents for their removal from the U.S.
“Advocates also stated that this is not an isolated incident and believe similar incidents to have occurred at other facilities within ICE’s New Orleans Field Office Area of Responsibility,” they continued. “If confirmed, these accounts would not only violate ICE’s detention standards, but also the law.” And as advocates warned, this chartered flight is deporting immigrants to unrest and a possible death sentence.
“The United States has both a legal and a moral imperative to welcome those fleeing conflict and persecution to the country,” Amnesty international USA’s Adotei Akwei said. “Cameroonians have established vibrant and thriving communities in the United States and people in this country are eager to welcome their new neighbors to safety.”
The U.S. must also stop the widespread abuse of Black immigrants in detention. “Immigrant detention is a horrible, dehumanizing experience for everyone,” Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) said. “But ICE makes it even worse for Black immigrants.
“While immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean made up about 4% of people in ICE detention from 2012 to 2017, they represented 24% of all solitary confinement lockups over that time, according to a study by researchers Franco, Patler, and Reiter,” the organization continued. “This means Black immigrants are six times more likely to be sent to solitary confinement,” which is torture. Detained Black immigrants suffer this abuse as they’ve also led protests against against unjust conditions. So of course ICE targets them in clear acts of anti-Blackness, using horrific acts of violence to terrorize them.
“I have never heard about them doing something like this before, forcing people to sign documents,” W.B. said in the complaint. He’s one of the eight men tortured and abused by ICE and the private prison officers. “I have fear in my heart right now. I am traumatized from what I saw.”