[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1048 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1048

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the plight of 
Cameroonian immigrants and the continued turmoil and instability in the 
  nation of Cameroon merits a designation of humanitarian parole and 
calling on the Department of Homeland Security to create a humanitarian 
         parole program for Cameroonians fleeing this violence.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 1, 2024

   Mr. Espaillat (for himself, Mr. Ivey, Mr. Trone, Mr. Bowman, Ms. 
   Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Ruppersberger, Mr. Cleaver, and Mr. McGovern) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of 
                        the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the plight of 
Cameroonian immigrants and the continued turmoil and instability in the 
  nation of Cameroon merits a designation of humanitarian parole and 
calling on the Department of Homeland Security to create a humanitarian 
         parole program for Cameroonians fleeing this violence.

Whereas Cameroon is currently facing multiple ongoing armed conflicts including 
        the Boko Haram terror crisis, the Seleka/Anti-Balaka rebel crisis, the 
        Anglophone secessionist crisis, and other ethno-religious clashes, in 
        addition to widespread corruption and political instability;
Whereas Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa, which have been designated as foreign 
        terrorist organizations by the United States Government since 2013 and 
        2018, respectively, have continued to launch deadly attacks on villages 
        and civilians in Cameroon's northern region;
Whereas the civil war in the Central African Republic has also spilled over to 
        Cameroon, with cross-border militias initiating conflicts in eastern 
        Cameroon;
Whereas, from 2016 through November 2023, over 6,000 people were killed as a 
        direct result of violence in northwest and southwest Cameroon, and 
        according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of 
        Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1,700,000 people in Cameroon are in need of 
        humanitarian assistance, 638,421 people have been internally displaced, 
        and more than 87,402 have fled to neighboring Nigeria;
Whereas the Cameroonian military faces credible accusations of arresting people 
        it identifies as dissidents, burning down civilian homes, and killing 
        citizens with impunity, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis for 
        Cameroonian civilians;
Whereas, due to ongoing armed conflict, continued human rights abuses, and other 
        extraordinary and temporary conditions in Cameroon that prevent 
        Cameroonian nationals from safely returning to their country, the 
        Department of Homeland Security designated Cameroon for temporary 
        protected status (TPS) in April 2022 and then redesignated and extended 
        Cameroonian nationals for TPS in October 2023, providing short-term 
        relief for Cameroonian immigrants who have been continuously residing in 
        the United States since October 5, 2023;
Whereas the aforementioned TPS designations do not apply to Cameroonians who 
        arrived in the United States after October 5, 2023, presenting a 
        pressing need for the United States to apply humanitarian protections 
        for Cameroonians who continue to flee the ongoing armed conflicts in 
        their country and who have continued to arrive in the United States 
        since October 5, 2023;
Whereas, as of February 2024, multiple nations other than Cameroon have received 
        concurrent TPS designations and humanitarian parole designations from 
        the Department of Homeland Security as a means of providing 
        comprehensive protection in the United States for deserving and 
        embattled immigrant populations;
Whereas Cameroonian immigrants who have fled to Nigeria have previously faced 
        extradition back to Cameroon where they risk an unfair trial before a 
        military court and the possibility of torture;
Whereas the journey from Africa to seek refuge in the Western Hemisphere is 
        particularly perilous and occasionally deadly for Cameroonian migrants, 
        as demonstrated in March 2023 when a boat carrying nearly 3 dozen West 
        African immigrants, a majority of whom were Cameroonian migrants en 
        route to the United States Virgin Islands, capsized, killing 3 
        Cameroonians and leading to a search for 13 additional bodies that were 
        never found;
Whereas, in December 2023, the European Union (EU) signed a pact to facilitate 
        the deportation of asylum seekers and limit migration to the bloc, 
        leaving Cameroonian migrants fleeing violence or ethnoreligious 
        persecution particularly at risk;
Whereas, amid stricter EU immigration policies, Cameroonian asylum seekers are 
        increasingly seeking protection in Latin America and the United States, 
        where they often face intense discrimination, detainment, poor 
        conditions of confinement, and deportation;
Whereas, in the United States, despite only making up around 7 percent of the 
        noncitizen population, Black immigrants represent over 20 percent of 
        those in deportation proceedings on criminal grounds, constituting 
        revealing evidence of the disparate treatment of Black immigrants;
Whereas, in August 2020, Cameroonian detainees at Louisiana's Pine Prairie 
        Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center launched 
        their third hunger strike that year to bring attention to their 
        experiences of racism, unwarranted threats, and excessive abuse by ICE 
        officials;
Whereas, although only 6 percent of migrants detained by ICE are Black, 28 
        percent of abuse complaints over a recent 6-year period (2016-2021) were 
        reported by Black detained persons, and nearly half of the calls (43 
        percent) by Black nonbinary-detained persons included reports of abuse;
Whereas immigrants from majority Black countries, such as Cameroon, that are in 
        ICE detention facilities are sent to solitary confinement at a 
        disproportionately high rate, pay higher bonds, and face more rejections 
        for asylum than immigrants from nonmajority Black countries;
Whereas a recent report from Human Rights Watch reveals that Cameroonian 
        authorities, including police, paramilitary officers (gendarmes), 
        military personnel, and other Cameroonian state actors have subjected 
        returned deportees, and family members of those deportees, to serious 
        human rights violations to punish them for fleeing, including rape, 
        torture, physical abuse, extortion, arbitrary arrest and detention, and 
        inhuman and degrading treatment in detention;
Whereas this aforementioned report by Human Rights Watch further indicates that, 
        upon the arrival of deported migrants back in Cameroon, Cameroonian 
        authorities have confiscated the identity documents of these Cameroonian 
        citizens in an attempt to contain, monitor, and possibly arrest these 
        individuals at a later date on fabricated charges;
Whereas section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act grants the 
        Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security the authority to 
        establish parole programs for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant 
        public benefits (``Special Humanitarian Parole''); and
Whereas since the creation of the Humanitarian Parole process in the 1950's, the 
        United States Government has successfully established over 120 different 
        programmatic or categorical parole programs to address the circumstances 
        of deserving, at-risk immigrant populations from nations in Europe, 
        Asia, and Central and South America, but has never created such a 
        program for any of the fifty-four African nations in the program's 70-
        year history, raising concerns of anti-Blackness and anti-Africanness in 
        the United States historical immigration policy that deserve to be 
        addressed and corrected: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) recognizes the dire and ongoing humanitarian crisis for 
        Cameroonian migrants that are fleeing violence and widespread 
        human rights violations in their home nation, in addition to 
        the discriminatory treatment often faced by Black and African 
        immigrants;
            (2) calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security to use the 
        authority under section 212(d)(5)(A) of the Immigration and 
        Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5)(A)) to establish a special 
        humanitarian parole program for Cameroonian nationals who are 
        seeking refuge in the United States to grant these immigrants 
        much-deserved humanitarian relief; and
            (3) urges the United States Government to allocate 
        appropriate resources to assist in the successful resettlement 
        of Cameroonian immigrants, including comprehensive support for 
        Cameroonians benefitting from Special Humanitarian Parole 
        status.
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