“Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.”
Under the Trump regime, the United States Department of Homeland Security has removed Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Haitian asylum seekers living in the U.S. First enacted as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, TPS prevented asylum seekers from being deported to countries that are considered unsafe because of a number of reasons, from armed conflict to natural disasters. It also allows them to live and work in the US without fear of arrest and harassment. Considered a form of “humanitarian parole,” TPS was first extended to Haitian migrants after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. In 2018, the Trump regime attempted to end TPS status for Haitians, but they were challenged by a number of groups, including the NAACP, which sued the regime for racial discrimination against Haitians. But on the return of the Trump regime to the U.S. presidency, the push to remove TPS protections for Haitians and other nationalities has accelerated. Earlier this year, 350, 000 Venezuelan asylum seekers were removed from TPS protection after the US Supreme Court supported the Trump regime’s case.
When it comes to the TPS, there are four important things to note. First, TPS status has not stopped the U.S. deportation machine. Indeed, ever since the passing of the immigration act of 1996 under the Clinton administration, harassment, denial of due process, and deportation has been the mainstay of US policies – especially for Black and Brown immigrants from the western hemisphere and Africa. Indeed, even as Obama and Biden supported the extension of TPS, they deported more people during their terms than any other president (though the Trump regime is set to surpass this record). Second, the TPS has given cover to various US regimes to not have to deal with a path to citizenship for the numerous undocumented migrants living and working in the country. Third, TPS status remains intact for Ukrainian migrants, while the Trump regime gives asylum and financial support for racist afrikaner whites from South Africa.
Fourth, we have to understand the uniqueness of using TPS to attack Haitian migrants. The US relationship with Haiti and its people has been one of 200 years of racist representation, occupation, and violence. This is the context through which to read this latest assault on Haitian people. The removal of TPS protection will leave around 500,000 Haitian migrants at the mercy of the white supremacists DHS/ICE apparatus. But this assault on Haiti, Haitians, and Haitian migrants is not new – it is just an egregious intensification of the attack. Remember that, even before they took office, Trump and J.D. Vance accused Haitian migrants of stealing and eating their neighbor’s pets. And remember that Haitians have been the migrant group most targeted for racist treatment – from the Krome detention center, to Guantanamo, to the designation by the CDC that they were HIV/AIDS carriers.
But this racism against Haitian asylum seekers goes back even further. In 1973, an essay appeared in Black New Ark: The Voice of New Ark’s Inner City, a newspaper published by the activist group, Committee for Unified NewArk (CFUN). The essay, titled “Black Refugees Unwelcomed!” and written by “Gaou Guinou Balewa), decried the unique racism encountered by Haitian refugees fleeing the Duvalier dictatorship. While the critique is a mild one, aimed at making a moral call for fair treatment of these refugees, it is telling that such critique seems more relevant today – 50+ years later.
We reprint the essay below.
Black Refugees Unwelcomed!
Gaou Guinou Balewa, 1973
If some Haitians brave the seas in frail boats in hope of making it to the shores of Miami, almost 1,000 miles away, one would think they have shown determination in escaping a horrible situation at home. One would have expected that the U.S., down as “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” warmly welcome the newcomers.
Especially when this country has a tradition of being pro-refugees. Not so in the case of the Haitians. They are Blacks and they are running from a dictatorship termed “friendly” to America.
After their ordeal at sea, Haitian refugees must expect harassment, jail and even eventual return to their homeland where they will have to face the music.
In the latest case of Haitian refugees, 62 were rescued by Cuban-Americans who brought them to Miami. It’s fitting that the Cubans so acted, for thousands of their own compatriots have made it to the U.S. the same way.
While Cubans are welcomed in Miami as bona Aida refugees and are given assistance to settle in all parts of the country, the Haitians are treated like felons. A double standard indeed!
No doubt the U.S. authorities can hide behind legal niceties to welcome the Cubans while rejecting the Haitians. They will say that the Cubans are running away from “atheistic Communism” and “dictatorial rule.” They will point out that Congress even passed a law recognizing the plight of the Cubans and providing them with assistance. But how does one explain all these niceties to desperate people who have risked their lives at sea running away from a “friend” of the U.S.?
We doubt that the best of Washington’s public relations operatives can explain it to the refugees.
But they try a new line of defense.
To wit, the Haitian regime of “President-for-Life” Jean-Claude Duvalier is not dictatorial. In fact it has been “liberalized,” they say. This is the new approach taken by Immigration and Naturalization officials everywhere. And Haitian refugees and political exiles find themselves being refused the hospitality granted others.
We denounce this insidious policy and we call on influential voices to make themselves heard in favor of the Haitian refugees. We seem to denote an inconsistency on the part of high Government officials, the mighty and the influential in various spheres of American life who are concerned about the treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union. Yet, at the same time, they turn a defeat ear to the plight of those that are far closer to them. No doubt the Jewish vote is important at election time.
In that case, let them forget about the great speeches about the great speeches about the “humanitarianism” of America and may they concentrate on pure pragmatism. If this is done, before long the Jews also will lose, because the Arabs have more oil, and oil may soon dictate the policy that will be implemented by the pragmatists who seem to be in the saddle in Washington.
Thus, at the risk of sounding moralistic and idealistic we are calling on this country to live up to its traditions of supporting the cause of refugees, whether they be white, black or yellow; no matter what kind of dictatorship they are running from. It is time to put a stop to cynicism in high places.
Gaou Guinou Balewa, “Black Refugees Unwelcomed!,” Black New Ark: The Voice of New Ark’s Inner City, 2 no. 13 (Novemba, 1973).
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