Open the borders! Reparations for the Haitian people!

Workers World Party salutes the inspiring bravery of the Haitian people — in Del Rio, Texas, and in Haiti, now and for over two centuries. WWP also salutes the solidarity expressed in the streets by the political movement worldwide including inside the U.S. for the Haitian people.  

The racist brutality of the United States was on worldwide display, with pictures of their border guards using whips — which the Border Patrol calls long reins — to stop Haitians trying to bring food and water back to their families in Del Rio. The Haitians ducked and dodged the Patrol’s terror but still didn’t drop their packages. As of Sept. 27, all the Haitian refugees have been removed from the border but the crisis still continues.  

Lying to the refugees and saying that they were just moving them to a reception center with more facilities, the U.S. brought planeloads of people back to Port-au-Prince. These expulsions — illegal under international law — were met with more resistance. On at least one bus bringing refugees to the Del Rio airport, refugees managed to gain control of the bus and flee.

When the planes reached Port-au-Prince, people struggled to remain on the plane or to get back on it. Their belongings were thrown in a jumble on the tarmac, and often their passports and their children’s passports were not returned. To thwart their heroic resistance, Haitian people were put on the planes in shackles, returned in chains much like their ancestors were brought to Haiti.

Haitians weren’t leaving because of the current political instability. The people at Del Rio left Haiti long before the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Long before the regime of Michel Martelly (2011-2016), during the decades of Duvalierist terror, people were fleeing the economic and political devastation caused by the U.S. 

The U.S. has been sabotaging Haitian development since Haiti committed its original “sin”— eradicating its enslavers through revolution — and emerged in 1804 as a free, Black country.

The Haitian people are due billions of dollars in reparations from all the wealth stolen from their superexploited labor and resources by both French and U.S. imperialism. These reparations can be used to build passable roads, decent housing, schools and hospitals, electricity and other infrastructure along with providing livable wages and benefits long denied to them.  

We demand that the U.S. government open its borders to Haitians and other asylum seekers and stop the racist terror now! Reparations for the Haitian people!