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Demand Protection for Cameroonians

April 2022: GOOD NEWS! The Biden administration has granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Cameroonians who were present in the United States on April 14, 2022.

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A February 2022 Human Rights Watch report documents that 13 of the estimated 80 to 90 Cameroonians deported on flights in late 2020 were tortured, physically or sexually abused, or assaulted by state agents. Cameroonian authorities targeted the families of deported people. In seven cases HRW documented, state agents beat, abducted, detained, harassed, and in one case reportedly killed, relatives in connection with deportees’ returns.

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that Cameroonians present in this country must be granted Temporary Protected Status NOW.

Migrants from Cameroon flee both ongoing conflicts between Anglophone separatists and the government forces and violence from armed Boko Haram groups in the north. Tens of thousands of Cameroonian refugees have fled the country. A few thousand reached the United States, where they have often been imprisoned before having their pleas denied—and then being deported. Esther is one of the deportees interviewed by Human Rights Watch:

“After the United States rejected her asylum claim and deported her in October 2020, Esther, a Cameroonian woman, found herself trapped in a nightmare in the country she had previously fled. ‘I was arrested and detained [by gendarmes]… I was raped. I was well [seriously] beaten, I was tortured, I lived mostly on bread,’ she said. ‘They said we are the people that have gone out and spoiled the name of the country… so I have to pay for it dearly.’…

“Human Rights Watch research shows that US authorities not only sent Cameroonians back to harm, but also subjected them to serious human rights violations in US immigration detention, failed to fairly adjudicate many of their cases, and failed to protect confidential asylum documents, which were confiscated by their government. For these reasons, US deportations of Cameroonian asylum seekers violated US obligations under international human rights and refugee law….

“Human Rights Watch found that Cameroonian authorities have, between 2019 and 2021, subjected returned deportees and members of their families to serious human rights violations including rape, torture and other physical abuse, arbitrary arrest and detention, inhuman and degrading treatment in detention, extortion, and threats. Perpetrators included police, gendarmes, and military personnel, among other officials and state agents.”

The United States is still deporting people back to Cameroon. The quickest way to stop deportations is through Temporary Protected Status for Cameroonians in this country.

Call your Senators.Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that Cameroonians present in this country must be granted Temporary Protected Status NOW.

ILCM has signed on to a letter to President Biden, signed by hundreds of organizations, demanding protection for Cameroonians. You can read that letter here.

Afghan Adjustment Act: Tell Congress to Act Now!

Updated July 17, 2023: The Afghan Adjustment Act was once again introduced in the Senate by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) last week. Two years after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congress STILL has not passed the legislation that would give Afghan refugees the protection we promised. 

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, the U.S. military evacuated more than 123,000 people – including tens of thousands of Afghan allies, refugees, parolees, and their families. More than 70,000 came to the United States immediately, and are in the process of resettlement here. Tens of thousands remain on military bases and other locations outside the United States, as do many other Afghans who have fled since last August.  

Evacuees still face uncertainty: many of the Afghans brought to the United States have been given humanitarian parole status, which only grants temporary permission to enter and remain in the U.S. for two years. For many current and nearly all future Afghan evacuees, temporary status under humanitarian parole is the only viable option to initially enter the U.S. But ultimately, parole leaves our Afghan partners without any real way of securing permanent status in the U.S.  

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status. 

Passing legislation that would protect these evacuees is critical because obtaining asylum may be difficult or out of reach for many of them. Given existing backlogs in the asylum system, as well as the fact that many Afghans were advised to destroy needed documents associating them to the U.S. mission to evade the Taliban, many deserving evacuees will find it difficult to obtain asylum expeditiously. With an asylum backlog stretching years, and options limited for those who may not qualify, Congress must act to resolve the long-term status of these people and provide them an expedited pathway to lawful permanent residence. Without it, these individuals face potentially being forced to return to Afghanistan, waiting years for asylum, removal proceedings, and even deportation.   

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status.  

There is historical precedent for passing legislation like this – in 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act granted Cubans in the U.S. with work authorization and lawful permanent residency, and several different Acts over many years that granted adjustment status to individuals from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after the Vietnam War.   

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Tell them that Congress should immediately pass an Afghan Adjustment Act that would allow Afghan evacuees parolees an opportunity to seek lawful permanent resident status. 

Suggested message: 

“I urge you to pass an Afghan Adjustment Act, legislation that would allow Afghans arriving with humanitarian parole who were evacuated from Afghanistan to have a pathway to permanent status. Creating a pathway to apply to become lawful permanent residents after one year in the U.S. strengthens our communities and supports arrivals’ integration in their new homes.” 

 

Want more information? Here’s a fact sheet on the Afghan Adjustment Act.

Take Action: Demand Safety and Release from Detention for Immigrants and Asylum Seekers

One year into President Biden’s term, more immigrants and asylum seekers are now locked up by ICE and at risk of deportation than at the beginning of his term. Despite his stated opposition to private, for-profit prisons, most immigrant detainees are held in just such unsafe and often abusive facilities. The continuing failure of ICE detention facilities is evident in surging COVID infection numbers: a six-fold increase in COVID infections among immigrant detainees from January 3 to January 13.

Many of these detainees have recently crossed the southern border seeking asylum. No one should be locked up for seeking safety or solely because of their immigration status. The Administration is responsible for the safety of people in its custody, and they are failing. Tens of thousands of lives are at stake.

Call your Senators. Call your Congressional Representative. Contact the White House through this email form. Tell them that immigrant detainees must be released from custody while they wait for their hearings. Tell them that no one should be held in unsafe conditions and exposed to COVID because they came to the United States seeking safety.

DHS must swiftly establish an affirmative file review process with a presumption of liberty for people in detention and commit to the individualized consideration of release for all people in ICE custody. This process should prioritize those most vulnerable to harm in custody, including individuals who face a heightened risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19, transgender people, pregnant people, and HIV+ people.

DHS must permit asylum-seekers and immigrants to live in freedom, without surveillance, and supported by sponsors and community-based non-profits should they need assistance navigating the immigration process.

Take action today to demand safety and humane treatment for immigrants and asylum seekers now in detention.