Carlton Waterhouse Is Fighting For Environmental Justice At The EPA — And Getting Called A “Racist”

Ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, the environmental lawyer has become a target of the far right’s bogus narrative around race.

Zahra Hirji BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on September 14, 2021

BuzzFeed News; Getty Images / Via YouTube / youtube.com

Carlton Waterhouse, the Biden administration’s nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency office in charge of cleaning up the nation's most toxic waste sites, has spent his career fighting policies that hurt people of color. Now, in the lead-up to his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, he's being called a "racist" and "extremist" for his positions on law enforcement funding and reparations policy.

It’s the Republicans’ latest attempt to perpetuate a culture war around diversity and critical race theory. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas told Fox News that Waterhouse was an “extremist” who “supports fringe environmental and racist policies.” Thomas Jones, cofounder of the American Accountability Foundation, a conservative nonprofit that launched earlier this year, said Waterhouse is “a racist” who is “obsessed with pushing racially-divisive rhetoric and policies into every aspect of public life.”

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Waterhouse addressed the criticisms for the first time and spoke about his own experiences with racial discrimination, including having a cousin who was shot and killed by the police. These experiences have indelibly shaped his work: He’s fighting for everyone to breathe clean air and drink clean water, especially people of color and low-income communities who disproportionately live in the shadow of pollution.

In response to the attacks on his character and work, Waterhouse said: “Those kinds of distortions just misrepresent really what I've fought for and the kinds of things that I've been advocating for.”

The criticisms come as the Biden administration has aggressively pushed for all agencies to prioritize environmental justice, creating a new White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council to bolster the government’s progress. As part of this push, earlier this month the EPA released a report showing how climate change disproportionately impacts people of color.

But the clash surrounding Waterhouse’s confirmation also comes as conservatives have increasingly been misappropriating conversations on equity to weaponize them against Democrats.

Environmental justice advocates who support Waterhouse’s nomination say he’s gotten extra heat for being Black and advocating for Black people.

“We've seen Black and brown women and men who've gone through the confirmation process, and there is always that additional set of scrutiny that is placed upon them,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, the Obama-era head of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice. “It’s unfortunate when people are not willing to also highlight the amazing things that people have done to help to make their country stronger, to make their communities stronger.”


Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images
Activists and supporters of Black Lives Matter march on the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's death on May 25, 2021, in Los Angeles.


Waterhouse’s father grew up in a small town in East Texas, leaving at the age of 17 and lying about his age to serve in a segregated unit in the military “to get away from that mistreatment” he faced growing up in the Jim Crow South, Waterhouse said. His maternal grandmother, who is still alive today, worked for the James River Country Club in Newport News, Virginia, which did not have any Black members through the late 1980s.

At Pennsylvania State University, Waterhouse studied engineering and ethics of technology. He then graduated from Howard University School of Law and later got a doctorate in social ethics from Emory University. He and his older brother were the first people in his family to graduate from college.

“When I was a student at Penn State, I dealt with a lot of racial discrimination myself,” he said. “Just from riding my bike downtown, where people threw bottles and yelled racial epithets at me.”

In between the degrees, Waterhouse spent nine years working as an attorney on high-profile pollution enforcement cases for the EPA. He then taught environmental law for over a decade, including recently leading the Howard University Environmental Justice Center. As part of his research, he’s written about lead poisoning in children of color, and about reparations for descendants of enslaved people. It’s the latter that’s recently garnered negative attention.

“Rather than a crowning achievement of American democracy,” Waterhouse wrote in a 2006 paper, “the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s represented one more step in a series of unfortunate legal events that ultimately reflected the dominant attitude of society’s white majority toward ending the Jim Crow practices of the south.”

Directly referencing this excerpt and others, the American Accountability Foundation wrote a scathing blog post claiming that Waterhouse is “so radical he opposes the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s.”

That allegation, Waterhouse said, is “ludicrous.”

His paper noted “that it was unfortunate that the question of reparations for people who had been the victims of the racial discrimination in the past” were not included in the legislation, he said. The result was that people like his grandmother — who lived most of their adult lives facing racist policies dictating whether they could buy homes, get healthcare, or vote — never had those losses recovered.

More recently, as protests swept the nation last year following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Waterhouse joined hundreds of legal experts in a letter expressing support for defunding the police.

When asked about this, Waterhouse told BuzzFeed News he had a personal connection with police violence.

His cousin Marcus-David Peters, a teacher in Richmond, Virginia, was experiencing a mental health crisis in May 2018. Unarmed, he got into his car naked and crashed it. The police officer who responded to the scene shot and killed him.

“If you watch the video online, it's just really heartbreaking,” Waterhouse said.

Waterhouse said his support for defunding the police was about rethinking the role of law enforcement in society. “When I was talking about how we can address the police issues that were being raised, at the time, I was talking about making funds available for additional services, like mental healthcare,” he said. “I don't believe in abolishing the police. I think the police are important. They serve an important role in our society.”

Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
A massive Royal Dutch Shell manufacturing complex in Louisiana’s St. Charles Parish releases plumes of smoke into the air after Hurricane Ida knocked out its power on Aug. 30. NOT SMOKE THIS IS TOXIC POLLUTION INCLUDING CARCINOGENIC PARTICULATES

Waterhouse has been serving as the deputy in the EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management since February. His vision for the office is to prioritize environmental justice, addressing everything from legacy pollution issues, like lead poisoning, to newer pollutants like PFAS.

If confirmed, he will oversee the Superfund program, which is dedicated to cleaning up about 1,300 large hazardous waste sites across the nation. He’ll also manage the Brownfields program, which offers grants, job training, and other assistance to assess, clean up, and reuse contaminated properties. His office is also among those in the government that respond to environmental disasters, such as Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, spewing black smoke into the air after Hurricane Ida hit the South earlier this month.

“Environmental justice means nobody should have to live with pollution in their yards, in the water that they drink, in the creeks that are next door to them, or the lakes that they fish in to get food,” he said.

Biden’s approach to environmental justice stands in stark contrast to the former president Donald Trump, who, in his first budget proposal, called for ending all funding for the EPA Office of Environmental Justice.

The Trump administration, Mustafa Santiago Ali said, tapped people for the EPA who “did not have a track record on caring about the environment and definitely did not have a record of helping to protect those who we know our environmental laws have fallen short on.” Roughly a month after Trump took office, Ali resigned from the EPA.

Trump’s initial pick to lead the same EPA office was Albert Kelly, who had been placed on a federal ban from banking and had no environmental cleanup experience. Kelly resigned about a year into the job amid ethics inquiries.

His successor, Peter Wright, had previously worked as Dow Chemical Company’s managing counsel and represented the company in negotiations with environmental regulators over its handling of hazardous waste.

“We have a totally different paradigm now,” Ali said. “We have a lot of people who truly care. And not only do they care, but they have expertise and they have a record.” He included Waterhouse among those.

It’s unclear whether Waterhouse’s past comments on race will come up during his Senate hearing, although the Biden administration is confident he will be confirmed. And he’s already met and won the support of Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat and the chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which is hosting the nomination hearing.

“Carlton Waterhouse has devoted his career to protecting communities across the country from hazardous waste and looking out for those who have suffered the most,” Carper told BuzzFeed News in an emailed statement. “I look forward to getting him confirmed in this important role.”

Waterhouse is unsure what will happen at the confirmation hearing, but he said he will stay true to the ideals that have driven him throughout his career.

“The truth is that my values relate to protecting all communities, and they relate to protecting all people, particularly people who find themselves vulnerable and marginalized around issues like environmental protection and environmental quality,” he said. “It’s just been really important for me, through my interactions, to stand up and say things that will help move the ball forward.”


MORE ON THIS
The EPA Just Announced A $50 Million Push To Help Underserved Communities Tackle Pollution And Get JobsZahra Hirji · June 25, 2021
Inside "The Very Secret History" Of The Sunrise MovementZahra Hirji · Aug. 12, 2021
In Jackson, Mississippi, You Can Go Into Debt Trying To Take A ShowerBrianna Sacks · April 7, 2021
This Louisiana Town Is A Bleak Forecast Of America's Future Climate CrisisZahra Hirji · June 17, 2021


Zahra Hirji is a science reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC

Democrats Plan To Tax The Rich Lets Billionaires Keep Paying Less Than Average Workers

The party is planning to raise taxes on corporate investors and the wealthy to pay for social programs, but is not fundamentally reforming a system that allows billionaires to skirt paying taxes.

Paul McLeodBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on September 14, 2021,

Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. David Schweikert and Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal attend the committee markup of the Build Back Better Act.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats proposed a rewrite of the tax code to raise taxes on big corporations and the rich, but their plan leaves in place loopholes that allow ultra-wealthy investors to pay lower tax rates than middle-class workers.

Democrats need to raise revenues in order to pay for their signature $3.5 trillion public policy bill that could include everything from childcare support and paid parental leave to investments in green energy and lowering prescription drug prices. They plan to do this through progressive reforms that raise the corporate tax rate and a capital gains tax for high earners, plus a 3% tax surcharge on anyone making over $5 million.

The blueprint released Monday by House Ways and Means chair Richard Neal would make the tax code more progressive, but it leaves in place preferential treatment for those earning millions of dollars of investment income and allows them to continue passing much of that wealth down to their children untaxed. It would not fundamentally remake a system that allows the richest people in history to pay little to no income tax.

“They’re perpetuating the idea that wealthy investors like me are going to pay far lower tax rates than people who work for a living. That means people who are already richer are going to get richer and richer,” said Morris Pearl, formerly a managing director at investment giant BlackRock and now chair of Patriotic Millionaires, a group that advocates for progressive tax reforms.

Neal’s bill would set the tax rate on capital gains at 25% for anyone who earns over $400,000 — up from the current 20% but still well below the 37% top rate that regular income is taxed at. Pearl argued that capital gains above $1 million should be taxed the same as income.

The bill also raises the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% for companies that make over $5 million. The federal tax rate on corporations had been 35% up until 2017, when Republicans cut it sharply. Neal’s bill would also raise the top individual income tax rate to 39.6% for people who earn over half a million dollars per year.

One surprising omission is that the bill does not close the carried interest loophole that benefits private equity managers. Large hedge fund managers earn essentially a bonus — a share of the profit — if their portfolios perform well. But unlike with the bonuses offered by other jobs, hedge fund managers do not have to report it as income. Instead, they report it as capital gains and thus get taxed at a lower rate. Politicians of all stripes have condemned this policy. Former president Donald Trump said hedge fund managers were “getting away with murder” and vowed to close the loophole, but Republicans opted not to fix it in their tax bill.

Neal, who formerly tanked a bill that would have stopped private equity firms from capitalizing off of surprise medical bills, does not end this special treatment toward private equity in his plan.

“[Private equity managers] are basically doing the work of people who work at investment banks but they’re taxed differently. It doesn’t make any sense,” said Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Marr said the legislation makes significant progressive changes to the tax code, even if there are items he thinks should be included or beefed up. “I think the big picture is it’s a major step forward,” he said.

The challenge with taxing the ultra-wealthy, Marr said, is that they derive most of their wealth not through salaries but stocks, which are taxed when they are sold.

One aggressive proposal from Senate Finance Committee chair Ron Wyden is to tax the assets of millionaires and billionaires every year based on their market value, not just when they’re sold.

President Joe Biden has called for ending the system that allows for the wealthy to pass down their fortunes essentially free of capital gains tax. Currently, if someone amasses $1 billion dollars worth of assets and sells them off at the end of their life, they would have to pay about $200 million in capital gains. But if they die and leave their fortune to their children, that bill is wiped away. The children receive their inheritance, for tax purposes, as if they had paid $1 billion for it.

Neither Wyden’s nor Biden’s proposal is included in the bill, despite hope that at least the inheritance issue would be addressed.

It’s not clear whether progressive Democrats will mount a campaign to change the bill. Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal did not respond to a request for comment. The Senate is also developing its own plan, and the two chambers will need to agree on a final plan for anything to pass. Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate and not much more than that in the House, but they are planning to use a process called budget reconciliation to pass their $3.5 trillion plan (though that number could still change wildly as the bill is negotiated) without a single Republican vote.

Erica Payne, founder of Patriotic Millionaires, said Democrats will be deservedly attacked in the 2022 midterms if they preserve a system that allows the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk to pay lower taxes than the average worker.

“They had an opportunity to end the preferential treatment the uber rich get in the tax code and they refused to do it,” Payne said. “They cowed to Wall Street and private equity interests.”

MORE ON THIS
The Fight For Paid Parental And Medical Leave Has Officially Begun

Paul McLeod · Sept. 9, 2021


Paul McLeod is a politics reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

 

The Government Of Trinidad And Tobago Has Responded To Nicki Minaj's Claim About A Cousin's Friend's Swollen Testicles

Health officials said they "wasted so much time" trying to verify the rap star's claim about swollen testicles.

Salvador HernandezBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on September 15, 2021,

Abaca Press / Sipa USA via AP

Nicki Minaj's claim that a cousin's friend's testicles became swollen after taking the COVID-19 vaccine caused such an uproar that the government of Trinidad and Tobago responded directly to the startling allegation Wednesday.

Minaj's story that the cousin's friend became impotent and, as a result, had his wedding called off touched off a firestorm that spread from Twitter to late-night shows, cable news, and official government updates on the pandemic in the UK and Trinidad and Tobago

During a televised update on COVID-19 Wednesday, health officials of the Caribbean island said they had "wasted so much time" trying to confirm or debunk Minaj's claim, spending most of Tuesday trying to find out if there had been a case of swollen testicles in the island.

"As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad," Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh said Wednesday morning. "Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim."

Deyalsingh's confirmation that there have been no such reported claims come as health officials across the world continue to fight disinformation and false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines, which health officials have repeatedly said is the best way to fight the ongoing deadly pandemic.

The uproar began Monday after Minaj tweeted that attendees for the Met Gala were asked to be vaccinated, and the rap star confirmed she had not received the shot.

Minaj said she wouldn't be vaccinated until she felt she'd "done enough research" and encouraged people to wear masks.

Twitter: @NICKIMINAJ

Then she followed up with a tweet claiming that her cousin was not vaccinated because a friend allegedly "became impotent" after getting the shot, and his fiancé called off their wedding as a result.

In the tweet, Minaj became the most recent celebrity to cast doubt on the safety of the vaccines, relaying the story about how the friend's "testicles became swollen" and telling people to "make sure you're comfortable with ur decision."

Twitter: @NICKIMINAJ

However, the CDC and several independent studies have found COVID-19 vaccines are safe as well as effective in preventing infection, reducing the chances of severe symptoms in breakthrough cases.

Other studies have found none of the vaccines have created fertility or sexual problems.

During the Wednesday press conference, Deyalsingh said health officials have found no recorded incident in Trinidad and Tobago, or anywhere else in the world, of testicles getting swollen because of the vaccine.

Minaj has so far stood by her comments, even after the tweet became fodder for late-night comics and garnered international headlines.

Online sleuths inquired who "the friend" might be with no success. Even Fox News host Tucker Carlson — who has spread misinformation on vaccines as well — made an appeal for "the friend" to reach out to the show.

Twitter: @NICKIMINAJ

In the United Kingdom, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Prime Minister Boris Johnson were asked about her comments during the country's COVID-19 briefing.

Whitty said the rapper "should be ashamed," and Johnson claimed he was not very familiar with her work.

Twitter: @onikamajestyy

Meanwhile on Twitter, Nicki Minaj later said she'll likely be vaccinated in the future because she has "to go on tour, etc."

 JPG

Before AOC Wore It On A Dress, Occupy Wall Street Called To "Tax The Rich"

Ten years after thousands gathered to protest capitalism, the message and mission of Occupy Wall Street still feels relevant.

Kirsten ChilstromBuzzFeed News Photo Editor

Posted on September 15, 2021, 

This week, social media has been abuzz with critiques over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Tax the Rich” dress, yet the sentiment is nothing new to those who witnessed the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. Some may even argue that if not for the Occupy movement, a candidate like Ocasio-Cortez would not have been elected.

Since the organizing of Occupy Wall Street, America has aged 10 years and witnessed remarkable mass movements, including #MeToo, March for Our Lives, and Black Lives Matter. Occupy Wall Street was started in a time of recession and corporate bailouts for financial services, and the main messaging was centered around the divide between the 99 percent and the 1 percent. It was on Sept. 17, 2011, that a group of protesters launched the two-month-long rebellion calling for economic inequality reform. Hundreds of people set up camp in downtown Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, and thousands joined in daily protests until being forced to vacate the area in November 2011. Versions of the protest popped up across the nation; according to the Guardian, over 600 communities in the United States and 70 major cities saw OWS initiatives.

Occupy Wall Street sparked conversations and demands for a higher minimum wage and encouraged everyday people to question the status quo. Reading the messages scrawled across the signs in these photos gives us the opportunity to reflect on where our country stands today and how much further we have to go

Mario Tama / Getty Images



Demonstrators rally outside One Police Plaza during an Occupy Wall Street march on Sept. 30, 2011, in New York City.


Mario Tama / Getty Images



A protester at the start of a march by demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street, Sept. 30, 2011, in New York City.


Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images



Protesters shout slogans while holding Occupy Wall Street banners on Oct. 3, 2011, in Los Angeles.




Jewel Samad / AFP via Getty Images



A man signs a huge banner during "Occupy DC" at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, on Oct. 10, 2011.


Ramin Talaie / Corbis via Getty Images



Protest signs are left on the ground in Zuccotti Park where protesters demonstrated against the economic system in Lower Manhattan, Sept. 19, 2011.


Mario Tama / Getty Images



Demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street march on Sept. 30, 2011, in New York City.


Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images



A protester holds up a sign during the Occupy Wall Street march on Oct. 3, 2011, in Los Angeles.



Timothy A. Clary / AFP via Getty Images



Occupy Wall Street demonstrators continue their protest at Zuccotti Park in New York on Oct. 20, 2011.


Michael Nagle / Getty Images



People protesting the economic system flood sidewalks in the Financial District as office workers head to work on Sept. 19, 2011, in New York City.


Ethan Miller / Getty Images



A protester with the Occupy Las Vegas movement takes part in a march on the Las Vegas Strip, Oct. 6, 2011.


Michael Nagle / Getty Images



A protester demonstrates against the economic system near the New York Stock Exchange on Sept. 19, 2011, in New York City.

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Mario Tama / Getty Images



A sign at a gathering of demonstrators opposed to corporate profits on Wall Street at Zuccotti Park in the Financial District on Sept. 30, 2011.


New York Daily News Archive / NY Daily News via Getty Images



Protesters march with a golden calf around the Occupy Wall Street protest encampment in Zuccotti Park.


Emmanuel Dunand / AFP via Getty Images



People demonstrating around Wall Street attempt to disrupt the pedestrian flow for financial workers who are going to work in New York City, on Sept. 19, 2011.


Mario Tama / Getty Images



Granny Peace Brigade demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement march through downtown Manhattan on Sept. 30, 2011.




Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images



A protester holds a placard during a late afternoon march through downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 3, 2011, in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City.


Mario Tama / Getty Images



Protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement rally in Foley Square before marching through Lower Manhattan on Oct. 5, 2011, in New York City.


The Washington Post / The Washington Post via Getty Images



A protester in Freedom Plaza, part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, on Oct. 6, 2011, in Washington, DC.


Scott Olson / Getty Images


Demonstrators with Occupy Chicago protest outside the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago on Oct. 3, 2011.




Stan Honda / AFP via Getty Images



Demonstrators march to One Police Plaza, headquarters of the New York Police Department, on Sept. 30, 2011.


Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images



A man chats with police near a sign where protesters were staying overnight in downtown Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 2011.


Ramin Talaie / Corbis via Getty Images



A protester at Zuccotti Park where hundreds of demonstrators camped out in Lower Manhattan for 14 days, Sept. 30, 2011.


Spencer Platt / Getty Images



Thousands of Wall Street protesters are joined by union members during an afternoon protest on Oct. 5, 2011, in New York City.




Boston Globe / Boston Globe via Getty Images



A sign is planted in the ground in Dewey Square in Boston on Oct. 2, 2011, as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement.


Joe Longobardi / Flickr Vision



The protest is in solidarity with movements across the country that began on Wall Street in New York City on Sept. 17, 2011.







Contact Kirsten Chilstrom at kirsten.chilstrom@buzzfeed.com.

Haitians on Texas border undeterred by US plan to expel them

By JUAN A. LOZANO, ERIC GAY and ELLIOT SPAGAT

1 of 35

A dust storm moves across the area as Haitian migrants use a dam to cross into and from the United States from Mexico, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, in Del Rio, Texas. The U.S. plans to speed up its efforts to expel Haitian migrants on flights to their Caribbean homeland, officials said Saturday as agents poured into a Texas border city where thousands of Haitians have gathered after suddenly crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)


DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — Haitian migrants seeking to escape poverty, hunger and a feeling of hopelessness in their home country said they will not be deterred by U.S. plans to speedily send them back, as thousands of people remained encamped on the Texas border Saturday after crossing from Mexico.

Scores of people waded back and forth across the Rio Grande on Saturday afternoon, re-entering Mexico to purchase water, food and diapers in Ciudad Acuña before returning to the Texas encampment under and near a bridge in the border city of Del Rio.

Junior Jean, a 32-year-old man from Haiti, watched as people cautiously carried cases of water or bags of food through the knee-high river water. Jean said he lived on the streets in Chile the past four years, resigned to searching for food in garbage cans.

“We are all looking for a better life,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security said Saturday that it moved about 2,000 of the migrants from the camp to other locations Friday for processing and possible removal from the U.S. Its statement also said it would have 400 agents and officers in the area by Monday morning and would send more if necessary.

The announcement marked a swift response to the sudden arrival of Haitians in Del Rio, a Texas city of about 35,000 people roughly 145 miles (230 kilometers) west of San Antonio. It sits on a relatively remote stretch of border that lacks capacity to hold and process such large numbers of people.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press on Friday that the U.S would likely fly the migrants out of the country on five to eight flights a day, starting Sunday, while another official expected no more than two a day and said everyone would be tested for COVID-19. The first official said operational capacity and Haiti’s willingness to accept flights would determine how many flights there would be. Both officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Told of the U.S. plans Saturday, several migrants said they still intended to remain in the encampment and seek asylum. Some spoke of the most recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, saying they were afraid to return to a country that seems more unstable than when they left.

“In Haiti, there is no security,” said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived with his wife and two daughters. “The country is in a political crisis.”

Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many having left their Caribbean nation after a devastating 2010 earthquake. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.

Jorge Luis Mora Castillo, a 48-year-old from Cuba, said he arrived Saturday in Acuna and also planned to cross into the U.S. Castillo said his family paid smugglers $12,000 to take him, his wife and their son out of Paraguay, a South American nation where they had lived for four years.

Told of the U.S. message discouraging migrants, Castillo said he wouldn’t change his mind.

“Because to go back to Cuba is to die,” he said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection closed off vehicle and pedestrian traffic in both directions Friday at the only border crossing between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuña “to respond to urgent safety and security needs” and it remained closed Saturday. Travelers were being directed indefinitely to a crossing in Eagle Pass, roughly 55 miles (90 kilometers) away.

Crowd estimates varied, but Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said Saturday evening there were 14,534 immigrants at the camp under the bridge. Migrants pitched tents and built makeshif t shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river.

It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border to wait while deciding whether to attempt entry into the U.S.

The number of Haitian arrivals began to reach unsustainable levels for the Border Patrol in Del Rio about 2 ½ weeks ago, prompting the agency’s acting sector chief, Robert Garcia, to ask headquarters for help, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Since then, the agency has transferred Haitians in buses and vans to other Border Patrol facilities in Texas, specifically El Paso, Laredo and Rio Grande Valley. They are mostly processed outside of the pandemic-related authority, meaning they can claim asylum and remain in the U.S. while their claims are considered. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement makes custody decision but families can generally not be held more than 20 days under court order.

Homeland Security’s plan announced Saturday signals a shift to use of pandemic-related authority for immediate expulsion to Haiti without an opportunity to claim asylum, the official said.

The flight plan, while potentially massive in scale, hinges on how Haitians respond. They might have to decide whether to stay put at the risk of being sent back to an impoverished homeland wracked by poverty and political instability or return to Mexico. Unaccompanied children are exempt from fast-track expulsions.

DHS said, “our borders are not open, and people should not make the dangerous journey.”

“Individuals and families are subject to border restrictions, including expulsion,” the agency wrote. “Irregular migration poses a significant threat to the health and welfare of border communities and to the lives of migrants themselves, and should not be attempted.”

U.S. authorities are being severely tested after Democratic President Joe Biden quickly dismantled Trump administration policies that Biden considered cruel or inhumane, most notably one requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings.

A pandemic-related order to immediately expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum that was introduced in March 2020 remains in effect, but unaccompanied children and many families have been exempt. During his first month in office, Biden chose to exempt children traveling alone on humanitarian grounds.

Nicole Phillips, legal director for advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance, said Saturday that the U.S. government should process migrants and allow them to apply for asylum, not rush to expel them.

“It really is a humanitarian crisis,” Phillips said. “There needs to be a lot of help there now.”

Mexico’s immigration agency said in a statement Saturday that Mexico has opened a “permanent dialogue” with Haitian government representatives “to address the situation of irregular migratory flows during their entry and transit through Mexico, as well as their assisted return.”

The agency didn’t specify if it was referring to the Haitians in Ciudad Acuña or to the thousands of others in Tapachula, at the Guatemalan border, and the agency didn’t immediately reply to a request for further details.

In August, U.S. authorities stopped migrants nearly 209,000 times at the border, which was close to a 20-year high even though many of the stops involved repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for being expelled under the pandemic authority.

___

Lozano reported from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico and Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Ben Fox, Alexandra Jaffe and Colleen Long in Washington contributed to this report.

  

Haitian migrants' tortuous journey ends in Mexico limbo

Issued on: 19/09/2021 -

Murat "Dodo" Tilus set off from Chile with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren on August 8, 2021, leaving a country that had welcomed him following the 2010 earthquake that left 200,000 dead in Haiti 

CLAUDIO CRUZ AFP

Tapachula (Mexico) (AFP)

After weeks on the road, traversing mountains and jungles, risking assault and drowning, thousands of Haitian migrants hoping to reach the United States have instead found themselves stranded in Mexico.

Many embarked on the journey encouraged by family and friends already living the American dream -- but who often failed to mention the dangers that lay in wait.

Tens of thousands of migrants, including many Haitians previously living in South America, are stuck in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, waiting for documents that would allow them to continue.

Those who tire of waiting or run out of money try crossing Mexico anyway, hoping not to be caught by the authorities and deported to Guatemala.

But when they reach the border with the United States, they find themselves trapped again.

Thousands of migrants, many of them Haitians, are now crowded under a bridge in Texas after crossing the Rio Grande river, hoping to be allowed into the country.

Despite the hardships, migrants keep pouring into southern Mexico from Guatemala.

- Fleeing quake fallout -

Every night, Murat "Dodo" Tilus wakes with an excruciating pain in his arm -- the result of a fall on a Colombian mountain on his way to the United States, where he hopes to join his brother.

Haitian migrant Judith Joseph and her children spent two months traveling overland between Chile and Mexico

 CLAUDIO CRUZ AFP

He set off from Chile with his wife, daughter and two grandchildren on August 8, leaving a country that had welcomed him following the 2010 earthquake that left 200,000 dead in Haiti.

"My house collapsed (in the quake), my relatives died, then I decided with my wife to go to another country," the 49-year-old electrician told AFP.

But the "Chilean dream" began to fade in 2018 when the government imposed measures making life harder for migrants.

These days in Chile, "it's very difficult to get a work permit. Everything became more expensive, so people want to leave to look for a better life," he said.

He and his wife Rose Marie raised about $5,000 for the journey, setting off by bus.

After a month-long odyssey crossing 10 countries, they arrived in Tapachula.

Now they sleep in a room in a home that they share with four other Haitian families, while they wait for an appointment to process their refugee claim.

Haitian and Central American migrants march to the immigration offices in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula to demand documents 

CLAUDIO CRUZ AFP/File

It is only thanks to money sent by Tilus's brother that they are not sleeping in the streets like some migrants.

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance is struggling with a backlog of requests for documents.

So far this year, it has arranged about 77,559 permits for migrants, compared with 70,400 for all of 2019.

Hundreds of migrants tried to cross Mexico on foot this month in caravans but were blocked by the Mexican authorities.

"I want to continue (to the United States) legally," Tilus said.

- Perilous journey -

Judith Joseph fled to Chile from Haiti in 2017 after one of her three children was murdered.

Despite suffering from ailments including diabetes and difficulty walking, the 43-year-old set off on July 10 and arrived in Tapachula nearly two months later with her other two children, Samuel and Cristelle.

The worst part of the journey was crossing the Darien Gap, an area of jungle between Colombia and Panama infested with armed gangs and drug traffickers.

Migrants, mostly from Haiti, gather at a makeshift encampment under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on the border with Mexico 

Jordan Vonderhaar GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

They saw some migrants drown, while others lost their few belongings.

Life in Haiti, where his mother worked in a market, was equally difficult, said 11-year-old Samuel.

"There were mice in the kitchen at night. During the day there were always Haitian soldiers shooting outside the house," he said.

Now they share a room with others on the outskirts of Tapachula, while they wait for refugee status to continue a journey that Samuel wishes they had never begun.

"I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay in Chile," he said.

© 2021 AFP

Official: US to expel Haitians from border, fly to Haiti
By ERIC GAY and ELLIOT SPAGAT


1 of 16

Haitian migrants use a dam to cross to and from the United States from Mexico, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in Del Rio, Texas. Thousands of Haitian migrants have assembled under and around a bridge in Del Rio presenting the Biden administration with a fresh and immediate challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)


DEL RIO, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration plans the widescale expulsion of Haitian migrants from a small Texas border city by putting them on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, an official said Friday, representing a swift and dramatic response to thousands who suddenly crossed the border from Mexico and gathered under and around a bridge.

Details are yet to be finalized but will likely involve five to eight flights a day, according to the official with direct knowledge of the plans who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. San Antonio, the nearest major city, may be among the departure cities.

Another administration official speaking on condition of anonymity expected two flights a day at most and said all migrants would be tested for COVID-19.

U.S. authorities closed traffic to vehicles and pedestrians in both directions at the only border crossing in Del Rio, Texas, after chaos unfolded Friday and presented the administration with a new and immediate challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it was closing the border crossing with Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, “to respond to urgent safety and security needs.” Travelers were being directed to Eagle Pass, Texas, 57 miles (91 kilometers) away.

Haitians crossed the Rio Grande freely and in a steady stream, going back and forth between the U.S. and Mexico through knee-deep water, with some parents carrying small children on their shoulders. Unable to buy supplies in the U.S., they returned briefly to Mexico for food and cardboard to settle, temporarily at least, under or near the bridge in Del Rio, a city of 35,000 that has been severely strained by migrant flows in recent months.

Migrants pitched tents and built makeshift shelters from giant reeds known as carrizo cane. Many bathed and washed clothing in the river.

The vast majority of the migrants at the bridge on Friday were Haitian, said Val Verde County Judge Lewis Owens, who is the county’s top elected official and whose jurisdiction includes Del Rio. Some families have been under the bridge for as long as six days.

Trash piles were 10 feet (3.1 meters) wide, and at least two women have given birth, including one who tested positive for COVID-19 after being taken to a hospital, Owens said.

Val Verde County Sheriff Frank Joe Martinez estimated the crowd at 13,700 and said more Haitians were traveling through Mexico by bus.

The flight plan, while potentially massive in scale, hinges on how Haitians respond. They may face a choice: stay put at the risk of being sent back to their impoverished homeland -- wracked by poverty, political instability and a recent earthquake — or return to Mexico. Unaccompanied children are exempt from fast-track expulsions.

About 500 Haitians were ordered off buses by Mexican immigration authorities in the state of Tamaulipas, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) south of the Texas border, the state government said in a news release Friday. They continued toward the border on foot.

Haitians have been migrating to the U.S. in large numbers from South America for several years, many of them having left the Caribbean nation after a devastating earthquake in 2010. After jobs dried up from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, many made the dangerous trek by foot, bus and car to the U.S. border, including through the infamous Darien Gap, a Panamanian jungle.

It is unclear how such a large number amassed so quickly, though many Haitians have been assembling in camps on the Mexican side of the border, including in Tijuana, across from San Diego, to wait while deciding whether to attempt to enter the United States.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. “We will address it accordingly,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on MSNBC.

An administration official, who was not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the action is not targeting Haitians specifically and does not reflect a policy shift, just a continuation of normal practices.

The Federal Aviation Administration, acting on a Border Patrol request, restricted drone flights around the bridge until Sept. 30, generally barring operations at or below 1,000 feet (305 meters) unless for security or law enforcement purposes.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and frequent critic of President Joe Biden, said federal officials told him migrants under the bridge would be moved by the Defense Department to Arizona, California and elsewhere on the Texas border.

Some Haitians at the camp have lived in Mexican cities on the U.S. border for some time, moving often between them, while others arrived recently after being stuck near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, said Nicole Phillips, the legal director for advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance. A sense of desperation spread after the Biden administration ended its practice of admitting asylum-seeking migrants daily who were deemed especially vulnerable.

“People are panicking on how they seek refuge,” Phillips said.

Edgar Rodríguez, lawyer for the Casa del Migrante migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, north of Del Rio, noticed an increase of Haitians in the area two or three weeks ago and believes that misinformation may have played a part. Migrants often make decisions on false rumors that policies are about to change and that enforcement policies vary by city.

U.S. authorities are being severely tested after Biden quickly dismantled Trump administration policies that Biden considered cruel or inhumane, most notably one requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while waiting for U.S. immigration court hearings. Such migrants have been exposed to extreme violence in Mexico and faced extraordinary difficulty in finding attorneys.

The U.S Supreme Court last month let stand a judge’s order to reinstate the policy, though Mexico must agree to its terms. The Justice Department said in a court filing this week that discussions with the Mexican government were ongoing.

A pandemic-related order to immediately expel migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum that was introduced in March 2020 remains in effect, but unaccompanied children and many families have been exempt. During his first month in office, Biden chose to exempt children traveling alone on humanitarian grounds.

The U.S. government has been unable to expel many Central American families because Mexican authorities have largely refused to accept them in the state of Tamaulipas, which is across from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. On Friday, the administration said it would appeal a judge’s ruling a day earlier that blocked it from applying Title 42, as the pandemic-related authority is known, to any families.

Mexico has agreed to take expelled families only from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, creating an opening for Haitians and other nationalities because the U.S. lacks the resources to detain and quickly expel them on flights to their homelands.

In August, U.S. authorities stopped migrants nearly 209,000 times at the border, which was close to a 20-year high even though many of the stops involved repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for being expelled under Title 42 authority.

People crossing in families were stopped 86,487 times in August, but fewer than one out of every five of those encounters resulted in expulsion under Title 42. The rest were processed under immigration laws, which typically means they were released with a court date or a notice to report to immigration authorities.

U.S. authorities stopped Haitians 7,580 times in August, a figure that has increased every month since August 2020, when they stopped only 55. There have also been major increases of Ecuadorians, Venezuelans and other nationalities outside the traditional sending countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

___

Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writers Ben Fox, Alexandra Jaffe and Colleen Long in Washington, Paul Weber in Austin, David Koenig in Dallas and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

10,000 migrants, many Haitian, packed under Texas bridge

Issued on: 17/09/2021 -

Haitian and Central American migrants march to the Siglo XXI Migratory Station in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico, aiming to travel to the United States. 

CLAUDIO CRUZ AFP

Houston (AFP)

More than 10,000 undocumented migrants, many of them Haitians, were being held under a bridge in Texas on Friday, US officials said, posing a new challenge to President Joe Biden's immigration policy.

Bruno Lozano, the mayor of Del Rio on the US-Mexico border, said that the migrants were crowded in an area controlled by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) beneath the Del Rio International Bridge.

Many of them were Haitians hoping to stay in the United States as their country suffers after a large earthquake and continuing political turmoil, Lozano said.

The mayor said there were 10,503 people under the bridge on Thursday evening, up from around 8,000 earlier in the day.

Video footage showed families sitting and sleeping in the open air, awaiting processing by the CBP, which has been overwhelmed by migrants crossing the border from Mexico as well as tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan.

"The border patrol right now is so overwhelmed with the influx of migrants in the Del Rio sector," Lozano said.

He said, besides those under the bridge, there were another 2,000-3,000 held in detention by CBP in the area.

- Risk of heat illnesses -

In a statement, the CBP said it was sending extra personnel and resources.

"To prevent injuries from heat-related illness, the shaded area underneath Del Rio International Bridge is serving as a temporary staging site while migrants wait to be taken into Border Patrol custody," it said.

CBP said the "vast majority" of single migrants and many of the families would be expelled under the government's Title 42 policy curtailing immigration due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Those who cannot be expelled under Title 42 and do not have a legal basis to remain will be placed in expedited removal proceedings," CBP said.

Both Republicans and Democrats called for quick action from Biden, whose administration recorded and mostly expelled more than 200,000 migrants at the border in both July and August, the highest numbers in more than a decade.

Some said Biden's decision in late July after Haitian president Jovenel Moise's assassination to allow Haitians without US visas at the time to remain in the country offered an incentive for others to come.

"10,503 illegal aliens are under this bridge tonight because Joe Biden made a political decision to cancel deportation flights to Haiti," Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz tweeted on Thursday.

Meanwhile Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, herself an immigrant, also pressed Biden to act.

"This needs an urgent response from the Biden administration that is comprehensive and includes a cross-agency collaboration," she said in a statement.

"Let's help these folks who are stranded there and act swiftly before this gut-wrenching situation grows to unmanageable level."

© 2021 AFP

US holds thousands of migrants under Texas bridge

More than 10,000 migrants, mainly fleeing Haiti, are currently being held under a bridge at Del Rio near the US-Mexico border as immigration facilities in the area have reached capacity.

The bridge crosses the Rio Grande river that separates the US and Mexico

The mayor of Del Rio declared a state of emergency on Friday after more than 10,000 undocumented migrants poured into the Texas border town. 

US border officials said they were closing the Del Rio border crossing following the arrival of the Haitian migrants, many of whom were being held under a bridge controlled by the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to await processing. 

CBP announced the closure and said people would be rerouted 57 miles (93 kilometers) east to the Eagle Pass border crossing.

The migrants are living in squalid conditions and desert heat

"The border patrol right now is so overwhelmed with the influx of migrants in the Del Rio sector," local Mayor Bruno Lozano said, adding that the number of migrants under the bridge had increased from 8,000 Thursday, to over 10,000 on Friday. 

The mayor said most of the people are Haitians fleeing the aftermath of a large earthquake and ongoing political turmoil.

The White House remained silent on the issue as pressure mounted on US President Joe Biden to address the influx.

'Temporary staging site'

The CBP said in a statement it was increasing staff in the area and was providing drinking water, towels and portable toilets.

It said the bridge was being used as a "temporary staging site" to provide shade and prevent heat-related illness.

Migrants have been building make-shift shelters out of cardboard.

Unable to buy supplies in the US, many of the migrants have been wading across the knee-deep Rio Grande river to buy supplies in Mexico. 

Many of the migrants are reportedly wading across the Rio Grande back into Mexico to acquire 

essential supplies

Why are Haitian migrants coming?

It is unclear how such a large number of Haitian migrants assembled so quickly in Del Rio.

Edgar Rodriguez, a lawyer for the Casa del Migrante migrant shelter near Del Rio, told the Associated Press that the increase of Haitians began several weeks ago. He believes misinformation and rumors about US immigration policy may have played a role in the influx.

Several of the migrants told Reuters news agency that they had followed a route shared among migrants on WhatsApp, that provided a safe route into the US avoiding Mexican authorities. 

"Those ahead sent directions by phone. I helped people coming behind me," one of the people at the camp said. 

Officia: Migrants likely to be sent back by plane

The acute migrant influx is presenting the latest immigration challenge to Biden, who faced calls from both Democrats and Republicans to take quick action.

The Biden administration is planning a widescale expulsion of the migrants by putting them on flights to Haiti starting Sunday, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Saturday, citing an official with direct knowledge of the plans.

Details are yet to be finalized, but will likely involve five to eight flights a day, according to the official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity. 

Immigration authorities have said many of the migrants will likely not be permitted entry into the US

Although Biden rolled back many of former President Donald Trump's more hardline border policies, he left in place a pandemic-related expulsion policy, called Title 42. The directive allows migrants to be turned back at the border.

The CBP said the "vast majority" of single migrants and many of the families would be likely expelled under the policy.

"Those who cannot be expelled under Title 42 and do not have a legal basis to remain will be placed in expedited removal proceedings," CBP said.

Although a federal judge on Thursday ruled that Title 42 does not legally allow migrant expulsions, the order will not go into effect for 14 days