You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Documents Reveal ICE Officers’ Racist and Violent Language Against Black Asylum Seekers

HeadlineFeb 07, 2023

Immigration rights advocates have released a series of newly obtained documents revealing the racist and violent language used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials against Black asylum seekers. The communications between ICE agents are from 2020 and 2021, while the Biden administration mass deported Black asylum seekers to Cameroon and other African countries in what became known as “death flights.”

Dozens of Cameroonian asylum seekers deported by the U.S. faced torture, sexual violence and forced disappearances upon returning to their home country. At the time, Cameroonian asylum seekers also denounced torture from ICE agents who assaulted and restrained them and many times violently forced them to sign their deportation orders. In one email chain, an ICE official compares deportations to sports, while a high-ranking ICE official living in Cameroon complained about having difficulties finding a Catholic church there that wasn’t “aficanized” [sic].

In a statement, Luz López of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project said, “Black migrants suffer unfair and cruel treatment by racist U.S. immigration policies when seeking safety from gang-related violence, political instability, and extreme disasters. For decades, they have been denied due process rights and endured immoral and inhumane treatment in violation of U.S. and international laws, exposing them to further abuse, discrimination and even death.”

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top