UUSC Calls for Immediate Halt to Deportations of Cameroonian Asylum-Seekers

As of the morning of October 13, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is reportedly planning to deport more than 100 Cameroonian asylum-seekers to deadly conditions. Among them are women who were reportedly subjected to forced sterilization procedures in ICE custody, as well as asylum-seekers who say they were tortured, threatened, and violently coerced into signing deportation papers—as detailed in an October 7 multi-individual complaint submitted by Freedom for Immigrants and seven other civil rights organizations.

UUSC’s Vice President and Chief Program Officer Rachel Gore Freed issued the following statement: “It is a moral failure of leadership for the U.S. government to separate families and deport Cameroonians during a global pandemic. This is another manifestation of anti-Black racism in our country.”

Numerous human rights observers have documented the life-threatening conditions facing asylum-seekers and immigrants deported to Cameroon, a Central African nation riven by conflict between francophone and anglophone populations. Moreover, DHS’s deportations come in the midst of a global pandemic in which many U.S. deportations continue to risk spreading the disease. So far, more than 5,000 people have contracted COVID-19 while in DHS custody.

UUSC supporters can take the following steps to respond:

• Share and use the call-in script from the Cameroon American Council, asking the Congressional Black Caucus to intercede with DHS to halt these deportations.
• Re-Tweet messages from UUSC, Freedom for Immigrants and other advocates demanding a halt to these deportations.

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Photo Credit: iStock – Alessandro Biascioli