Jurists: Inherent racism in US immigration policy
Biden gives Ukrainian refugees temporary protection... and ignores others from Africa
The United States accepts 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
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The United States has opened the door to Ukrainian refugees and closed it to others from Africa, and people fleeing conflict in Cameroon wonder why they are not treated the same as Ukrainians.
Ukrainian immigration and refugee advocates have welcomed the Biden administration's decision to extend Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians in the United States, providing them with a safe haven from the aggression caused by Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine.
However, this quick action has raised new questions that have embarrassed the US administration about its dealings with asylum seekers from other war-torn countries, especially Cameroon.
For five years, people fleeing conflict and violence in the central African country have sought, in vain, for Washington for the same protections afforded to Ukrainians, just one week after Russia's aggression against their country.
American duality
Refugee advocates and human rights activists argue that the US ambivalence towards refugees from Ukraine and Cameroon clearly reflects the Biden administration's approach to immigration and refugee policies.
They argue that Biden has been far too slow on immigration and refugees compared to the administration of his predecessor, Donald Trump, and say Biden's rush to grant TPS status to Ukrainians while withholding the same protections from Cameroonians indicates the racism ingrained in US immigration policy.
feeling indignant
"Many of us are indignant that Ukrainians can receive such a designation in such a short time, while Cameroonians are still waiting," said Amy Fisher, director of outreach at Amnesty International.
“Obviously there is no way but to look at it from the perspective of two countries, one with white headlines, and one not making headlines at all, predominantly black,” Fisher adds.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment, but the Biden administration and Homeland Security officials have in the past held up the extension of temporary protection for asylum seekers from Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, to counter allegations that the immigration and refugee system discriminates against Africans.
Since 2017, Cameroon has been experiencing violence and instability, which has caused a widespread humanitarian crisis, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes.
There are two major conflicts fueling instability in the country.
The first is the conflict between the Cameroonian government, led by President Paul Biya, and separatists from the English-speaking minority.
This conflict, which began in 2017, has killed at least 4,000 civilians, forced more than 700,000 to flee their homes, and left more than 2.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
Cameroon is also facing a violent insurgency from the extremist group Boko Haram in the north of the country, which has displaced some 340,000 people.
slow measures
Refugee rights activists have been alarmed by the Biden administration's slow measures in providing temporary protection to Cameroonian refugees, saying the administration has not been forthcoming with them about whether to extend the protection status of Cameroonians in the United States.
If this protection is not granted, defenders will at least want to know why it has been withheld from them.
Instead, the decision remained stuck in a bureaucratic stalemate, awaiting a final decision from officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.
“This is something we have been trying for a very long time to verify,” says Daniel Tse, an advocate for Cameroonian asylum seekers at the non-profit organization Haitian Bridge Alliance.
Tse considers this his personal battle. He fled to the United States from Cameroon, and was able to obtain asylum, but after being held in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities for more than a year.
Over the past two years, he has been organizing an advocacy campaign to help Cameroonians gain temporary protection with US-based diaspora groups and other immigrant rights organizations.
He said he was disappointed that the Biden administration was slow to put Cameroon on the list of candidates, compared to Ukraine.
He said, "If the regime does not favor minority countries, we will not really be surprised," and goes on, "but it only hurts me that the world and the Biden administration continue to let us down, after they made all these promises."
The Temporary Protection System, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, grants legal status and work permits to citizens of countries hit by crises, such as ongoing armed conflict or natural disasters.
Importantly, temporary protection is only granted to aliens who are already in the United States, not to those trying to enter the country.
Temporary protection is usually valid for six, 12 or 18 months, but it can be extended for a longer period.
Other countries whose citizens are entitled to temporary protection, in addition to Ukraine, are Myanmar, El Salvador, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
Temporary protection designation is supposed to apply to the approximately 40,000 Cameroonian refugees currently in the United States, according to estimates by immigrant and refugee rights organizations.
deep sympathy
The Cameroonian refugee issue found strong sympathy in Congress, where the progressive wing of the Democratic Party attacked Biden for being too slow to undo restrictive policies on allowing the flow of immigrants and asylum seekers to the United States.
In the House of Representatives, Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren, chair of the Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee, called on Biden to give Cameroonians temporary protection.
On the Senate side, Senator Tammy Baldwin and 17 other Democratic senators wrote to Biden in March to demand temporary protection for Cameroon, citing in part the harsh treatment by the Cameroonian government of asylum seekers forcibly repatriated by the United States.
The senators wrote: "Continued crackdowns by the Cameroonian government on political dissent, and the documented detention and torture of detainees out of sight by the security forces, creates risks for anyone to be deported to Cameroon."
flagrant failure
Refugee advocates say not granting Cameroonians TPR is a flagrant failure of the Biden administration.
A February report by Human Rights Watch, a non-profit human rights organization, concluded that Cameroonians who were forcibly returned to their countries of origin faced persecution and other serious human rights violations.
The report concluded that the United States had "violated the principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee and human rights law."
Non-refoulement is an international principle that prohibits a country from forcibly returning asylum seekers to their home country, if they are likely to face persecution or violence there.
Another report also concluded that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the deportation of Cameroonians who have sought asylum in the United States, "failed to protect confidential asylum documents during deportations, resulting in document confiscation and apparent retaliation by the Cameroonian authorities." .
In its report, Human Rights Watch documented cases of forcibly deported Cameroonian citizens who were beaten, tortured, and raped by Cameroonian state agents after they were deported from the United States.
• People fleeing conflict and violence in Central African Cameroon have sought, in vain, for five years, to obtain from Washington the same protection afforded to Ukrainians, just one week after Russia's aggression against their country.
• Refugee advocates and human rights activists see the United States' ambivalence in dealing with refugees from Ukraine and Cameroon clearly reflects the Biden administration's approach to immigration and refugee policies.
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