Essex County Official ‘Sickened’ By Haitian Refugee Crisis

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — When Wayne Richardson saw the latest news footage of the Haitian refugee crisis last week, he felt sick. “I saw people who look like me being treated like cattle, like slaves,” the Essex County Commissioner Board president said Tuesday.

“It is imperative that the United States government’s violent treatment and inhumane policies toward Haitian refugees stop now,” he added.

Richardson is among several elected officials in Essex County to call for a “responsible” and “humanitarian” U.S. immigration policy that ends disparities targeting Black and Brown people, many of whom are desperately seeking safety for themselves and their families.

And that includes refugees from Haiti, Richardson said.

In recent days, images of border patrol agents on horses pushing back Haitian migrants trying to reach U.S. soil by crossing the Rio Grande have prompted outrage across the nation. Some top-ranking Democrats have questioned President Joe Biden’s decision to swiftly deport thousands who had been arriving en masse at the Texas border, The New York Times reported.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has been among the groups of advocates that have demanded a meeting with Biden, Fox News reported.

Richardson, a Democrat, released the following statement about the situation on Tuesday:

“It is imperative that the United States government’s violent treatment and inhumane policies toward Haitian refugees stop now. In last week’s photos and footage, I saw people who look like me being treated like cattle, like slaves. The horrific treatment documented in those widely published photographs sickened many and galvanized elected officials, civic and political organizations, human rights organizations, and concerned individuals to call for President Biden to end the historic discriminatory treatment of Haitian refugees. This is not an issue to be outraged about today and forgotten tomorrow.”

Richardson continued:

“We must demand that the immigration policies of former U.S. presidents towards refugees entering the U.S. via Mexican borders not be the policies of President Joe Biden. We must demand that Haitian refugees be treated with the same human decency that all refugees should be afforded. As president of the Essex County Board of Commissioners, I join the outcry of East Orange Mayor Ted Green, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, other elected officials, People’s Organization for Progress Chairman Lawrence Hamm, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and so many other organizations and individuals in calling for a responsible humanitarian U.S. immigration policy that ends the disparity that targets Black and Brown people who arrive here in desperation. The words on the Statue of Liberty, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…’ can’t be abandoned.”

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