DHS Secretary Implements Deferred Enforced Departure for Hong Kong notice was published in the Federal Register on October 12.
President Biden directed Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to implement Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) and employment authorization for some Hong Kong residents through Feb. 5, 2023, in a memo dated Aug. 5, 2021. Work authorization is a benefit of DED status.
Individuals from certain countries and regions experiencing political or civic conflict or natural disaster are allowed to remain in the United States under the DED. There are no permanent immigration benefits under the DED. DED provides an administrative stay of removal for a specific period.
The Biden Administration should grant DED to residents of Cameroon immediately. DED would provide life-saving protection to the 40,000+ Cameroonians who, if deported, would be at imminent risk of harm or death.
A series of humanitarian crises characterized by extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and torture make a safe return impossible. In addition, DED Is much cheaper for the American taxpayer than deportation and more human.
This week, Black immigrant advocates filed a civil rights complaint to the Department of Homeland Security alleging that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) put Cameroonian asylum seekers under medical restraints called WRAP to torture them.
ICE agents used WRAPs on five Cameroonian immigrants during mass deportations back to the African country in 2020, according to the complaint.
The use of WRAP violates the Convention Against Torture and federal, state, and tort laws. The Convention Against Torture is an international treaty that prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment in any situation.
