NEW LONDON, Wis. — Hundreds of Haitian immigrants in this small town in eastern Wisconsin are threatened with deportation following a Department of Homeland Security order March 25. It cancelled the government’s humanitarian parole program for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Some 40 residents protested the decision April 9 outside the Tyson plant where more than 100 of the immigrants affected by the order work. The program authorizing their entry to the U.S. allowed them to get a job, but they now have 30 days to voluntarily leave the country or face deportation. Teachers who work with children with Haitian parents participated in the protest.
“Their children go to school with our children. They worship in the same churches. They eat at the same restaurants,” immigration lawyer Marc Christopher told the Wisconsin Examiner at the action. “They’re our friends, more importantly, and they’re our co-workers. So, they’re part of our community.”
“It’s just not right” Julie Merryfield told the Militant outside the town’s Walmart April 17. Some people this reporter talked to welcomed the deportation of workers without papers, while others had heard about the demonstration and said they supported it.
At a nearby trailer park, Eloy Hernandez, a worker at Tyson since 2000, described conditions at the plant.
“There were 2,600 workers at the plant when I started,” he said. “Most of them were North Americans.” But in the years since, the pace of production has increased and the workforce has shrunk to 1,000. His department of five is now down to two workers. They earn $23 an hour, which isn’t enough to live on.
Hernandez said he gets along well with his Haitian co-workers, but “the company has threatened to fire more of them on April 28.”
Hernandez was also interested in finding out more about the Socialist Workers Party, including its opposition to deportations and its call for an amnesty for workers without papers. He signed up for a subscription to the Militant and got a copy of Are They Rich Because They’re Smart? Class, Privilege, and Learning Under Capitalism.