U.S. immigration officials allegedly forced Cameroonian asylum seekers to sign their own deportation orders, describing lawyers and activists as ruthless in expelling African immigrants from the country in the run-up to the election.
Many Cameroonian migrants at the Mississippi detention center refused to sign because they feared death at the hands of Cameroonian government forces, responsible for widespread civilian killings, and because they had asylum hearings pending.
According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened with more violence, confusions, beatings, pepper spray to sign. Some were handcuffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, and their fingerprints were forcibly taken on documents known as the rules of pressure removal, by which asylum seekers were denied further hearing rights to immigration and deportation.
Lawyers and human rights advocates said there has been a significant acceleration in deportation in recent weeks, a trend they see associated with upcoming elections and the possibility that Ice could soon come under new management.
“The mistreatment of black immigrants in particular is not new, but it is on the rise,” said Christina Fialho, executive director of the Freedom for Immigrants (FFI) advocacy group. “At the beginning of October this year, Calls from Cameroonian and Congolese immigrants to our hotline began arriving in detention in ice prisons. They were threatened with deportation, often accompanied by physical abuse. “
“The reality is that ice works on shadows. They thrive on secrecy, “added Fialho. “We know the U.S. government is deporting key witnesses in an effort to silence survivors and release the ice of legal liability.”
The plane, carrying 60 Cameroonian and 28 Congolese asylum seekers, took off on October 13 from Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas to be safely delivered to their home countries. The charter plane did not issue a flight plan, but was discovered at the border by immigration rights group Witness, which said it had stopped in Senegal, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and then Kenya before flying back to Texas.
The Cameroonian deportees belonged to the country’s English-speaking minority, which has been the target of widespread abuse by government security forces, including the assassination of a judge seeking to crush the separatist movement. The Trump administration reduced the country’s trade privileges earlier this year due to continued abuse.
Most of the deportees on the flight testified that they had been detained without charge and torture at the hands of the Cameroonian military, and also had relatives killed. They were detained for questioning on reaching Duala, but some were released after being bribed by their families and then went into hiding.
Speaking of others, lawyer Everest Nokongchu said: “We have no idea what happened to the deportees. We know they arrived, but we haven’t heard what happened since they arrived at the airport. “
The Cameroonian embassy in Washington has not responded to several requests for comment.
The detainees and their lawyers have been told that there will probably be another deportation flight from there as early as Friday in the coming days.
“I kept telling him, ‘I can’t breathe.'”
U.S. Department of Justice In the immigration court system, Cameroonians are regularly denied asylum or parole.
Victims, family members, lawyers and human rights activists have described a number of drastic measures to get Cameroonian detainees on ice at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi to sign their own deportation orders.
The complaint filed by the FFI and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) cites eight cases of mandatory signatures or fingerprints on the removal orders.
One of the people involved, an early B.J. Recognized by, he said that on September 27 the ice officials sprayed pepper in my eyes and [one officer] I almost died. I kept telling him, ‘I can’t breathe.’ I almost died. ”
Another said, “As a result of the physical violence, they were able to forcefully get my fingerprint on the document.”
D.F. Another detainee, known as, said he was ordered to sign a deportation order on September 28 by an ice agent.
“I refused to sign. He pressed my neck to the floor. I said, ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I lost my blood circulation. Then they went inside with my hands on my back where there were no cameras. ”D.F. According to his account, he was then taken to the penal wing of the Adams County Center, known as the Zulu, and was further attacked.
“They put me on my knees where they were torturing me and they said they would kill me. They grabbed my hand and bent it. They were putting their feet around my neck. While in Zulu, they got my fingerprints on my deportation document and took my photo, ”he said. Dr. F.L was one of the detainees on the 13th October Duala flight. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
The third detainee, CAA, said he was pushed to the ground, seated, handcuffed and sprayed with pepper. “I was crying, ‘I can’t breathe’, because they were pressing the weight on my body. My eyes were so hot … I was pulled to the ground,” he said. “The officers told me to open my eyes. I couldn’t. My legs and arms were handcuffed. They forcibly opened my palm. Some of my fingers were broken. They pushed my fingerprint on the paper. “
CA was dropped off from a flight on October 13, but he still faces deportation.
Liberation in a nutshell
The two Cameroonians were deported at the last minute on October 13 after interference from human rights advocates from the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in the Department of Homeland Security, but were not told by ice agents that the country would do so.
Detainee Patrick, who has been told he is on the deportation list, said he could not sleep knowing that ice agents could come for him at any time, and that deportation could be a death sentence for him.
“I live in anxiety because I don’t know what to expect. I don’t even know what the next day will look like, and I’ll be taken home, “Patrick (a nickname) told the Guardian in the detention center’s cell.
His lawyer, Ruth Hargrove, said: “It’s really a very strong case for asylum, but the problem is that he could die before he gets a hearing, because he had to be on a plane that took off last week, and his ice officer just guaranteed. Given that it will be on the next flight. “
Ice spokeswoman Sarah Loicano confirmed that a formal complaint about the use of force against Cameroonian detainees had been submitted to the DHS inspector general.
Loicano added: “Sensationally unsubstantiated allegations, especially those made anonymously and without any fact-checking details, are irresponsible and should be treated with the utmost suspicion.”
“Ice is firmly committed to the safety and well-being of all those in its custody. Ice provides safe, humane and decent conditions for detainees in its custody, ”he said.
For those who have already been deported, any improvements to Ice will be too late, and they are currently in the U.S. I am not in a position to give evidence of their treatment.
An exiled Texas-based sister who fled after a flight to Douala on December 13 told the Guardian: “My brother fled to the United States thinking that you would be safe in another culture here. But they sent him back and now he has no life. She is hiding in the bush. What can you do in the bush? ”
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