HAITIAN REFUGEE IMMIGRANT FAIRNESS ACT
Date of Publication
1-1-2020 12:00 AM
Security Theme
Human Rights
Keywords
Refugee, act, government, Human Rights
Description
HRIFA acknowledged the legitimacy of the Haitian refugee crisis by allowing some Haitians to regularize their status. Steady influxes of Haitian “boat people” began arriving in December 1972, in flight from the brutal Duvalier dictatorship. Because Duvalier was an anti-communist ally that the United States did not want to offend, the U.S. government categorized the overwhelmingly poor and black migrants as economic migrants and not as refugees, making them ineligible to receive asylum and remain in the United States. To deter future asylum seekers from Haiti, the government placed the Haitians in detention centers, jails, and prisons. Treatment of Haitians contrasted sharply with that meted out to their neighboring Cubans, who as opponents of the communist Castro government receive the greatest consideration to gain admission as refugees.
HAITIAN REFUGEE IMMIGRANT FAIRNESS ACT
HRIFA acknowledged the legitimacy of the Haitian refugee crisis by allowing some Haitians to regularize their status. Steady influxes of Haitian “boat people” began arriving in December 1972, in flight from the brutal Duvalier dictatorship. Because Duvalier was an anti-communist ally that the United States did not want to offend, the U.S. government categorized the overwhelmingly poor and black migrants as economic migrants and not as refugees, making them ineligible to receive asylum and remain in the United States. To deter future asylum seekers from Haiti, the government placed the Haitians in detention centers, jails, and prisons. Treatment of Haitians contrasted sharply with that meted out to their neighboring Cubans, who as opponents of the communist Castro government receive the greatest consideration to gain admission as refugees.
