The Black migrant advocacy group suing the Biden administration over its treatment of Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas, is hopeful after the case saw its first legal proceeding before a federal judge since the potential class-action lawsuit was filed in 2021.
Last week during a status conference, U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb set a March 8 deadline for the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which is representing 11 Haitian migrants who accused the government of mistreatment and racial discrimination while in U.S. custody.
“We were really excited to have this hearing and to be able to get a sense of what the court is thinking … and to try to have a schedule moving forward to move this case along,” said Nicole Phillips, an attorney for Haitian Bridge Alliance.
The Biden administration sought to dismiss the case, which was filed in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 20, 2021. However, on Thursday, Cobb allowed the Haitian Bridge Alliance to amend its complaint after Title 42, a significant policy at the center of the lawsuit, ended on May 11, 2023, due to a separate court order.
In now infamous photographs, one of the plaintiffs in the case, Mirard Joseph, was grabbed by a U.S. border patrol agent on horseback on Sept. 19, 2021. The photos appeared to show the border agent using his horse reins to hit Joseph. The images drew public outrage, including from elected and community leaders who felt the photographs harkened back to the days of slavery and racial subjugation.
Though the Biden administration maintains that an internal investigation concluded that border agents did not whip migrants with horse reins, the lawsuit — which names President Joe Biden and other Biden officials as defendants — claims that Joseph was “assaulted” and that the horse-mounted border patrol officer “lashed at him with reins, attempted to drag him back into the water, and nearly trampled him.”
While coverage of the…
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