Vol. 81/No. 23 June 12, 2017
Haitian immigrants fight deportation
The Barack Obama administration extended Temporary Protected Status to immigrants from Haiti after a 2010 earthquake there killed about 300,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. Some 9,000 more were killed in a cholera outbreak spread by U.N. troops sent after the quake, and 1,000 were killed when Hurricane Matthew left much of the country devastated in 2016.
Department of Homeland Security officials told the press the situation in Haiti “has substantially improved” and the Haitian government wants their people back.
Haitian authorities said this is not their view and called for the protected status of the Haitians to be extended for at least 18 months. Hundreds of Haitians protested here May 13 demanding an extension.
There are citizens of nine other countries currently living in the U.S. under TPS, including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Sudan.
“If it’s canceled for the Haitians, we know it will be canceled for Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans,” Francisco Portillo, president of Miami-based Francisco Morazán Honduran Organization, told the Miami Herald May 9.
Cynthia Jaquith, Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor of Miami, spoke out in solidarity with Haitians and others covered by TPS. “The bosses in the United States use immigration status as a wedge to heighten divisions among working people here,” Jaquith said. “We need amnesty to unite the working class so we can wage a common fight against the attacks by the bosses and their government raining down today.”
Related articles:
Atlanta: ‘We won’t be silent’ fighting deportations
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