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R E S O L U T I O N
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WHEREAS, Cameroonians have been granted Temporary Protected |
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Status by the Department of Homeland Security in recognition of the |
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dire humanitarian crisis in their home country, but stronger |
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protections are desperately needed; and |
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WHEREAS, For more than a decade, Cameroon has been riven by |
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terrorism and armed conflicts; desperate people have fled to South |
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American countries and then made the perilous trek north through |
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Central America to Mexico's border with the United States; there, |
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they have been met with harsh prejudice, leading them to initiate |
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several protests at immigration processing centers in Tapachula and |
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Tijuana; and |
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WHEREAS, In the United States, following their Credible Fear |
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Interviews, Cameroonians have faced asylum denial rates |
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disproportionately higher than those of migrants from other |
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backgrounds; hundreds of Cameroonian asylum seekers have been |
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summarily deported from immigration jails, separating them from |
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their families still in the United States; some of those deported |
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were key witnesses in cases of human rights abuses while in U.S. |
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Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention; now caught in a |
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homeland torn between the repressive Francophone government and an |
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Anglophone separatist movement, they are more imperiled than ever |
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by their status as Anglophones officially designated as deportees; |
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and |
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WHEREAS, Cameroonians in U.S. detention have endured |
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terrible hardships and maltreatment, documented by such human |
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rights organizations as the Cameroon American Council; at the Don |
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Hutto immigration detention facility in Texas, 140 Cameroonian |
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women were being held in ice-cold, cramped, and unsanitary cells, |
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an environment that has caused outbreaks of influenza, scabies, and |
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other diseases; many Cameroonian migrant women in detention have |
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experienced horrifying medical negligence and abuse; at the Irwin |
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County Detention Center in Georgia, dozens of women were |
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unwillingly or unwittingly subjected to medical procedures of |
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dubious necessity; two of these migrants, Pauline Binam and |
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Josephine Lawong Kinaka, were transferred to Texas by Immigrations |
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and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings; following |
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intervention by members of Congress, Ms. Binam was released and |
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reunited with her parents and daughter in Maryland; despite having |
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family in Chicago, Ms. Kinaka was ultimately deported, along with |
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another Irwin County victim, Noela Sala, whose family also lives in |
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the U.S.; and |
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WHEREAS, The Department of Homeland Security has established |
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special humanitarian parole programs to address the circumstances |
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of particularly at-risk populations; Ukrainians were offered swift |
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accommodation following the Russian invasion, and certain |
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nationals of such countries as Afghanistan, Cuba, Guatemala, El |
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Salvador, and Honduras currently benefit; no Africans have been |
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granted such relief, however, raising serious questions of racial |
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discrimination and bias against people from the continent; and |
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WHEREAS, In order to redeem its reputation as an |
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international defender of human rights and atone for the abuses |
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suffered by Cameroonians in our broken immigration system, the |
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Department of Homeland Security should grant Special Humanitarian |
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Parole allowing refugees from violence and oppression in Cameroon |
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to at last find safety and reunite with family members in the U.S.; |
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now, therefore, be it |
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RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 88th Texas |
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Legislature hereby respectfully urge President Joseph R. Biden and |
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to take immediate |
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action to provide a Special Humanitarian Parole program for |
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Cameroonian refugees; and, be it further |
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RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official |
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copies of this resolution to the president of the United States and |
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to the secretary of the United States Department of Homeland |
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Security. |