The Guardian
Trump administration will deport to Haiti a man who has never been there
Financial advisor Paul Pierrilus came to the United States with his parents, both American citizens, when he was five. Paul Pierrilus, a man who will be deported from the United States to Haiti – a country he has never lived in. Photography: Immigration and Customs of the United States an airplane bound for Haiti whose passengers include a man who is not a Haitian citizen and who has never been there. Paul Pierrilus, a 40-year-old financial advisor from Rockland County, New York, was born in the French Caribbean territory of Saint Martin, according to a birth certificate provided by his family, who said he came to the US with his parents when he was five years old. Her sister and parents are American citizens. He was arrested on January 11, as part of what human rights defenders say is a final sweep of black migrants in the final days of the Trump administration. He told the family that he was being transferred to an ice detention facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is a typical precursor to deportation. According to his sister, Neomie, he was apprehended when he went to an immigration office at Federal Plaza in Manhattan on January 11, for what he thought was a routine visit. “He went there for the appointment and while he was there he was arrested and told that they have documents that prove he is a Haitian citizen,” said Neomie Pierrilus. She said her parents were Haitian, but they never applied for Paul’s Haitian citizenship. “We don’t quite understand how the documents that indicate that my brother was a Haitian citizen were obtained. “My brother was never in Haiti,” she said. “He has a minimum of language, he doesn’t know the culture, he doesn’t know anyone there. So my brother cannot go there. ”Neomie Pierrilus provided copies of e-mails last year from the then Haitian ambassador, Hervé Denis, confirming that his brother was not a Haitian citizen. Nor did Paul’s birth in Saint Martin confer French citizenship, making him stateless. Guerline Jozef, head of the Haitian Bridge Alliance community group, said the intense level of political violence in Haiti poses a serious threat to Pierrilus’ life. “Sending him to Haiti in the first place is not legal,” said Jozef. “And with what is happening in Haiti now, there is no way for them to deport people there, especially him because he is not Haitian, has never been there and has no connections there. Therefore, they cannot just drop you off at the airport. Ice performs removal flights to Haiti every second Tuesday and looks ready to move forward with this week’s scheduled flight the day before Joe Biden takes office. Biden promised a 100-day suspension of deportations on taking office, while immigration and ice procedures are reviewed. There have been calls for the agency to be dissolved for its role in enforcing Trump’s anti-immigration policies, including separating migrant children from their parents. Ice has also been accused of torturing African asylum seekers to get them to sign waivers that would allow their deportation, as part of a sweep targeting particularly African and Caribbean migrants. Another flight is due to leave Arizona on Tuesday for Mauritania, transporting blacks deported from Mauritania, despite the well-documented persecution and slavery of their community there. Deportations of black Mauritanians were rare before the Trump administration, under which they have increased more than tenfold. An Ice spokeswoman said she could not confirm any deportation flights until he landed, for reasons of operational security. “That said, it is not uncommon for removal flights to stop at multiple locations,” said the spokeswoman. Ice’s Twitter account celebrated Martin Luther King’s day on Monday saying it honored his “message of hope, justice and equality”. Jozef said the relentless deportation of Haitians and Africans by the agency – despite endemic violence and the risks of spreading the coronavirus – scoffed at that claim. “They target black communities. They target black immigrants. So this is the last attempt to destroy lives, ”she said. “As long as we celebrate the life of the MLK that fights for justice and on the eve of the inauguration, this cannot happen. This shouldn’t be happening. “