IV 

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 secesVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:54 Mar 01, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1048.IH HR1048

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•HRES 1048 IH 

sionist 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 


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•HRES 1048 IH 

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 


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•HRES 1048 IH 

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; 


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•HRES 1048 IH 

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 


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•HRES 1048 IH 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes the dire and ongoing humani3 tarian crisis for Cameroonian migrants that are flee4 ing violence and widespread human rights violations 

5 in their home nation, in addition to the discrimina6 tory treatment often faced by Black and African im7 migrants; 

8 (2) calls on the Secretary of Homeland Security 

9 to use the authority under section 212(d)(5)(A) of 

10 the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 

11 1182(d)(5)(A)) to establish a special humanitarian 

12 parole program for Cameroonian nationals who are 

13 seeking refuge in the United States to grant these 

14 immigrants much-deserved humanitarian relief; and 

15 (3) urges the United States Government to allo16 cate appropriate resources to assist in the successful 

17 resettlement of Cameroonian immigrants, including 

18 comprehensive support for Cameroonians benefitting 

19 from Special Humanitarian Parole status. 

Æ 


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