The trump administration plans
to kick out a half million Haitians in Black
August. The decision follows an earlier one by
the oligarchy to send about 300,000
Venezuelans packing on April 2. The fact that
these immigrants come from Black and Brown
countries is not a coincidence. Other
developing countries like El Salvador,
Ethiopia and Nicaragua are also in the
crosshairs. This is US-style ethnic cleansing.
The news that trump was revoking
the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for
Haitians living in the United States came as
no surprise. Haitians were targeted during his
re-election campaign, specifically the Haitian
community in Springfield, OH. Remember how
trump mocked them for eating the cats and dogs
of their neighbors. This is a vivid example of
how a dictator takes a ludicrous accusation
and twists it into a dangerous policy.
I thought about two things when
I read about the latest TPS saga. The first
was the horrifying reality Haitians will face
if forced to return to their homeland. The
second thought was of the wealthy white women
on the Upper East Side begging their
Congresspeople to exempt their Haitian
domestic from being deported. New York City
has the largest population of Haitians in the
US. They can’t count on any support from Mayor
Eric Adams. In exchange for making his federal
indictments disappear, Adams will be trump’s
accomplice in making Haitians disappear.
TPS was a designation created by
Congress in 1990 to offer legal reprieve to
those from other countries impacted by natural
disaster, armed conflict or other
“extraordinary and temporary conditions.” It
should be seen as a form of reparations for
victims whose country has been wrecked by US
imperialism.
The application process is
stringent but if nationals are approved, they
can get work and build a life in a country
that boasts of opening its shores to the
tired, the poor and the huddled masses,
“yearning to breathe free.” The words on the
Statue of Liberty should be changed to read,
“yearning just to breathe.”
It is important for those of us
in this country to fully understand why people
like the Haitians have to flee their
homelands. It’s not a love for this flawed
democracy; it is about survival. They are
fleeing their homelands made dangerous and
untenable by natural and man-made disasters.
The instability and violence in countries like
Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua can
be attributed to US greed and its foreign
policies.
The small island has been
catching hell ever since it fought and won its
independence in 1804. After France’s colonial
subjugation ended, the US tagged in. These
white colonizers reshaped the future of Haiti
by manipulating the sovereign country’s
economy and governance. The US is the main
reason for the crippling destabilization and
bloody violence that keeps Haiti from rising
as a free, self-determining country.
The US occupation of Haiti was
for the sole purpose of consolidating its
financial and military dominance. To date, it
has funded the violence of dictators like the
Duvalier family. The CIA is responsible for
the exiling and assassinations of Haitian
leaders who don’t play the game of empire.
US-based corporations engage in the brutal
exploitation of Haitian workers, making sure
the country remains the poorest in the Western
Hemisphere.
People in the US need to have
some historical context for what is happening
and be compelled to act. This current ethnic
purging is an opportunity to ratchet up our
efforts for principled Black-Brown unity. The
necessary response must go beyond protests of
the atrocities. The trump regime has made it
clear that the US only has room for white
people. People not like them will be accepted
based on their loyalty to the empire. We who
believe in humanity must organize to hold this
government accountable for its past and
present crimes. There will be no future where
having white skin is the determinant for
citizenship.
