https://socialistaction.org/2017/12/13/donald-trump-to-60000-haitians-get-out/
Donald Trump to 60,000 Haitians: ‘Get out!’
/ 20 hours ago
Dec. 2017 Haiti girl - Marty
Tent dwelling in a refugee camp in Haiti. Photo by Marty Goodman /
Socialist Action.
By MARTY GOODMAN
On Nov. 20, the Trump administration, after an election campaign based
on anti-immigrant hate, ordered the expulsion of 60,000 Haitians living
in the U.S. who arrived after the devastation of Haiti’s 2010
earthquake, which killed over 200,000. Haitians who arrived by Jan. 2011
received Temporary Protective Status (TPS) under a 1990 law and were
allowed to stay 18 months. Haitian TPS status was extended four times.
Directly affected will be some 30,000 children of Haitian TPS
recipients, ripping families apart. TPS Haitians have until July 2019 to
“prepare for departure” said the Department of Homeland Security. (TPS
status of 5000 Nicaraguans expires in early January and 86,000 Hondurans
in July 2018. Some 200,000 Salvadorans await a decision in January. TPS
was granted after hurricane Mitch hit Central America in 1999.)
The anti-immigrant attacks come on the heels of Trump’s racist Muslim
ban and threats to deport 800,000 children of so-called “illegal”
immigrants who received DACA status (Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals). All the while, Trump continues his vow to build a racist wall
along the Mexican border. Socialists say, “No to deportations! Full
citizenship rights for TPS immigrants! No to the wall! No one is illegal!”
In ending TPS status for Haitians, acting secretary of Homeland Security
Elaine Duke asserted, “the extraordinary but temporary conditions caused
by the earthquake of 2010 no longer exist”—a contemptible lie! TPS
Haitians have until July 2019 to “prepare,” says the administration.
The ruling-class bigots could hardly have been crueler. Since arriving,
TPS Haitians have gotten jobs and raised families. As a result, TPS
Haitians support 250,000 relatives in Haiti, says a study released in
October by the Global Justice Clinic of the New York University Law
School. If expelled, Haitians would be returning to a devastated country.
“I received a shock right now,” said Gerald Michaud, 45, a Haitian who
lives in Brooklyn, when he heard the bad news. He has been sending money
to family and friends back home. Brooklyn radio host Ricot Dupuy told
his listeners, “This pressure to send immigrants back home, … the idea
is to whiten America.”
TPS advocate Steve Forester, immigration policy coordinator with the
Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), cites as reasons for
TPS the earthquake, a post-earthquake cholera epidemic that has killed
10,000, and Matthew—a Category 4 hurricane that displaced 180,000 in
2016. Forester calls it, “Three sledge hammer blows, anyone of which
would have qualified Haitians for TPS.”
Marleine Bastien of Haitian women of Miami (FANM) put it this way last
April as threats to TPS mounted: “If any country qualifies for TPS right
now, it’s Haiti. If the Trump administration goes through with this, it
will be the most distressing, anti-family, anti-Black and racist
decision any administration can take. People are still dying as a result
of the imported cholera epidemic, and hurricane Matthew destroyed the
southern peninsula, where we have people eating dirt and living in
caves.” FANM has organized several TPS protests in Miami and at Trump’s
home at Mar a Lago.
Miami’s Ira Kurzban, a veteran Miami immigration rights attorney, ripped
Trump’s decision, “If you look at the TPS statutes it says the Attorney
General must find if there’s any earthquakes, flood, drought epidemic or
other environmental disaster, and a foreign state is unable to handle
it, and the foreign state has made a request [made Oct 4], then the
Attorney General should grant it. Haiti fits every category and checks
off every box with respect to why Haitians should get TPS. It’s a
continuation of the same history of discrimination.”
In April, it was revealed that the Trump administration sought criminal
records of TPS Haitians to disqualify them for extending TPS and cut-off
any TPS benefits they receive—but TPS Haitians do not receive any
benefits! Nevertheless, so-called “crime” records are irrelevant in
awarding TPS. In general, the supposedly out-of-control immigrant
“crime” rate is actually lower than that in the rest of society.
Under the boot of U.S. imperialism, immigration policy toward Haitians
has always been racist, including under Democrats and Republicans. Known
in the 1980s as “the Black Boat People,” Haitians were initially sent to
a mass detention camp in Miami. The impoverished Haitians opposed
U.S.-backed Haitian elites, unlike the mostly white, anti-communist
Cuban exiles who were granted virtual automatic asylum.
Haiti today: Poverty, displacement, epidemics
Haiti is in no position to receive 60,000 new arrivals. Some 40,000
Haitians still live in dangerous, unsanitary post-earthquake camps; 2/3
of camp pregnancies were from rape; 1/3 of desperate camp women report
trading sexual favors for basics like food and housing.
It is estimated that 2/3 of the capital’s post-earthquake buildings are
beyond repair, but re-inhabited. The earthquake, centered in Haiti’s
capital of Port au Prince, killed over 200,000 inhabitants, injured
another 1.5 million, and left 2.3 million displaced in a country of 11
million.
Overall, Haiti’s unemployment rate is about 40%, and 60% of Haitians
live on less than $2 a day. The country-wide minimum wage is less than
$5 a day, often ignored by bosses, particularly in textile plants that
are usually subcontractors to U.S. or other international corporations.
The Global Justice report concluded that “hunger and malnutrition” are
even “worse” than when TPS was implemented.
A cholera epidemic broke out soon after the earthquake caused by the
U.S./U.N. occupation’s disregard for Haitian welfare. Studies revealed
that the Nepalese contingent dumped faeces into a tributary of the
Artibonite River, used by Haitians for drinking and bathing. The fast
moving plague killed 10,000 and infected over 800,000, spiking again
after Matthew, although now it is down from its peak. All along, the UN
denied responsibility, until about a year ago, greatly undermining
public awareness and a swift response.
Nothing will change soon. President Jovenel Moise, a banana magnate, was
elected in 2016 by less than a 20% turnout of voters. Moise is a
proponent of the sweatshop economic model promoted by the U.S.-dominated
World Bank, as was his predecessor, Michel Martelly. Since assuming
office last Feb. 7, many large mobilizations have occurred demanding
Moise’s removal and an end to corruption.
Occupations by the U.S./UN have contributed mightily to the impunity of
the corrupt Haitian regimes: first 1915-1934, then U.S./UN occupations
in 1994, 2004, and 2010. President Obama sent in 20,000 troops to occupy
post-earthquake Haiti to prevent food riots that never occurred, while
delaying medical relief from several countries. The despised U.S./UN
occupying forces finally withdrew in October, leaving an expanded police
force and a reestablished Haitian military, notorious for brutality and
corruption.
Making conditions even worse, tens of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian
origin in the adjacent Dominican Republic have been expelled or fled the
racist, sometimes violent, campaign against them encouraged by a court
decision known as La Sentencia in 2013. Dominican lawmakers have cited
U.S. immigration law to defend their racist onslaught against darker
Dominicans, seen as Haitians. Little to nothing in aid is given to
refugees from the D.R. by the Haitian government, many of whom have
never lived in Haiti.
Trump’s lies to Haitians are astonishing—even for Trump! On the campaign
trail in 2016, Trump told a Haitian crowd, “I want to be your greatest
champion.” Haitian opportunists were able to rally support for Trump
based on the widespread and well-deserved hatred of Hillary and Bill
Clinton’s role in Haiti.
Wikileaks revealed the Clintons’ role in strong-arming Haitian
authorities to boost the status of a friend of the old Duvalierist
dictatorship clique, presidential candidate Michel Martelly, elected in
2011. Moreover, Bill Clinton’s role as the U.S. and UN “earthquake
relief” boss, during which $13.4 billion in international aid was
misspent or went missing in a grossly uncoordinated effort that reached
and/or involved few Haitians, while lining the pockets of U.S. Beltway
corporations and U.S. based non-governmental agencies (NGOs).
Any attack on immigrant workers, like that on TPS Haitians, is an attack
on all workers. Immigrants are not to blame for the crimes of this sick
capitalist system. Capitalism is in crisis, throwing unprecedented
millions into poverty worldwide and forcing massive migration to escape
exploitation, racism, war and climate change. Over 2.5 million
immigrants were deported under Barack Obama, more than any other
president, earning him the title of “Deporter-in-Chief.”
TPS and DACA recipients, all immigrant workers, including Muslims,
should unite in a common struggle against Trump’s war on immigrants and
the working class, especially oppressed communities, in this dangerous
moment. A massive national immigrant march on Washington is long overdue!
The National TPS Coalition has been formed. Go to http://www.fanm.org;
email communications@xxxxxxxx; or call 305-756-8050.
Share this:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
4Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)4
Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
December 13, 2017 in Caribbean, Immigration. Tags: Haiti
Related posts
Haiti erupts in strikes and protests
Dominican gov’t expels Haitians
Racist attacks in Dominican Republic
Post navigation
← Police corruption is rife from Baltimore to Philadelphia
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month December 2017 (8) November 2017 (13)
October 2017 (16) September 2017 (15) August 2017 (16) July 2017
(17) June 2017 (16) May 2017 (17) April 2017 (14) March 2017 (13)
February 2017 (19) January 2017 (13) December 2016 (12) November
2016 (19) October 2016 (12) September 2016 (10) August 2016 (10) July
2016 (14) June 2016 (14) May 2016 (9) April 2016 (12) March 2016
(14) February 2016 (8) January 2016 (11) December 2015 (11) November
2015 (9) October 2015 (8) September 2015 (10) August 2015 (7) July
2015 (13) June 2015 (9) May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12) March 2015
(9) February 2015 (11) January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12) November
2014 (11) October 2014 (9) September 2014 (6) August 2014 (10) July
2014 (11) June 2014 (10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10) March 2014
(9) February 2014 (11) January 2014 (11) December 2013 (10) November
2013 (11) October 2013 (17) September 2013 (13) August 2013 (10)
July 2013 (11) June 2013 (15) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (14) March
2013 (12) February 2013 (10) January 2013 (17) December 2012 (7)
November 2012 (8) October 2012 (19) September 2012 (2) August 2012
(27) July 2012 (18) June 2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April 2012 (14)
March 2012 (17) February 2012 (19) January 2012 (17) December 2011
(3) November 2011 (33) October 2011 (14) September 2011 (13) August
2011 (34) July 2011 (24) June 2011 (19) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (15)
March 2011 (15) February 2011 (15) January 2011 (15) December 2010
(17) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (6) September 2010 (3) August
2010 (8) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (2) May 2010 (9) April 2010 (3)
March 2010 (8) February 2010 (3) January 2010 (9) December 2009 (6)
November 2009 (5) October 2009 (16) September 2009 (3) August 2009
(2) July 2009 (5) June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April 2009 (6) March
2009 (16) February 2009 (9) January 2009 (10) December 2008 (11)
November 2008 (8) October 2008 (16) September 2008 (14) August 2008
(18) July 2008 (12) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) March
2008 (14) February 2008 (11) January 2008 (11) December 2007 (8)
November 2007 (1) July 2007 (1) June 2007 (1) April 2007 (1) March
2007 (1) February 2007 (3) December 2006 (11) November 2006 (11)
October 2006 (13) September 2006 (15) August 2006 (11) July 2006
(18) June 2006 (7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6) March 2006 (14)
February 2006 (5) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9) November 2005
(8) October 2005 (13) September 2005 (12) August 2005 (9) July 2005
(16) June 2005 (16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12) March 2005 (14)
February 2005 (19) January 2005 (15) December 2004 (14) November
2002 (17) October 2002 (19) September 2002 (22) August 2002 (21) July
2002 (15) May 2002 (21) April 2002 (21) February 2002 (15) January
2002 (15) December 2001 (17) October 2001 (24) September 2001 (18)
July 2001 (19) June 2001 (18) October 2000 (17) September 2000 (21)
August 2000 (19) July 2000 (16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21) April
2000 (22) March 2000 (28) February 2000 (18) January 2000 (20)
December 1999 (20) November 1999 (26) October 1999 (25) September
1999 (18) August 1999 (40) July 1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999
(27) April 1999 (25) March 1999 (26) February 1999 (29) January 1999
(24) July 1998 (12)
Search
View socialistactionusa’s profile on Facebook
View SocialistActUS’s profile on Twitter
View SocialistActionCT’s profile on YouTube
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
Category Cloud
Actions & Protest Africa Anti-War Arts & Culture Black Liberation Canada
Caribbean Civil Liberties Cuba East Asia Economy Education & Schools
Elections En Español Environment Europe Immigration Indigenous Rights
International Labor Latin America Latino Civil Liberties Marxist Theory
& History Middle East Police & FBI Prisons South Asia Trump / U.S.
Government Uncategorized Women's Liberation
View Calendar
Blog at WordPress.com.
Follow