PM Holness points to free movement in final CARICOM chair address
Sheri-kae McLeod, December 28, 2025
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has pointed to regional unity during Hurricane Melissa, expanded free movement, coordinated security action and renewed focus on Haiti as defining achievements of his tenure as chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as he hands over the role at year’s end.
In his end-of-year message issued Saturday from the Caribbean Community Secretariat in Guyana, Holness said 2025 tested the region’s resilience but also reinforced the “simple truth” of Caribbean solidarity, particularly in the wake of record-breaking Hurricane Melissa, which caused widespread damage across Jamaica and other territories.
Among the most concrete integration advances, Holness highlighted the decision by Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to implement full free movement of persons among themselves from October 1, 2025. He described the move as a “concentric circles” model that allows willing states to deepen cooperation while leaving the door open for others to join when ready.
On the economic front, Holness said CARICOM successfully defended regional interests amid shifting global trade conditions through coordinated advocacy with the CARICOM Private Sector Organization and strategic partners. He also pointed to expanded regional and international airlift, strengthened trade ties, and initiatives aimed at improving food and nutrition security.
Security challenges featured prominently during Jamaica’s chairmanship, particularly with the adoption of the Montego Bay Declaration on Transnational Organised Crime and Gangs at the July Conference of Heads of Government. Holness stressed that CARICOM continues to address crime and violence through multiple mechanisms, underscoring that “security and development are inseparable.”
Internationally, he said CARICOM maintained a unified voice at major global fora, including the United Nations General Assembly, the G20 Leaders’ Summit and the CELAC–EU Summit, strengthening foreign policy coordination and crisis response. On climate change, Holness acknowledged that outcomes from COP30 in Belém fell short of what vulnerable Small Island and Low-lying Coastal Developing States require, reaffirming the region’s commitment to the 1.5°C goal and praising the work of regional institutions such as CDEMA, CARPHA and the Caribbean Development Bank.
Holness also pointed to deepened engagement with Africa following the Second Africa–CARICOM Summit in Addis Ababa, including expanded cooperation on trade, investment, culture and advocacy on reparations.
On Haiti, he said sustained regional lobbying helped keep the country on the global agenda, contributing to a UN Security Council resolution establishing a gang suppression force partly supported by UN funding. CARICOM, he noted, is now a key partner in coordinating the OAS roadmap toward stability, with preparations under way for elections in 2026.
As he handed over the chairmanship, Holness warned that the region must navigate an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment with “clarity, cohesion and strategic discipline,” emphasizing diplomacy, respect for sovereignty and peaceful engagement.
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Despite the year’s challenges, he said CARICOM remains one of the world’s most enduring integration movements, expressing confidence in the Community’s future and the Secretariat’s continued role in supporting regional stability.
In January, St. Kitts and Nevis will become chair of CARICOM.
Haitian migrants intercepted on Christmas in Quebec near U.S. border, RCMP say
Nineteen migrants of Haitian origin were arrested on Christmas in Quebec after RCMP say they illegally crossed the border from the United States on an extremely cold evening.
Mounties say it happened in the Havelock area of Montérégie in southern Quebec, approximately five kilometers from the border with the state of New York.
They say the people in the group were between the ages of one and 60, including a three-year-old.
RCMP say in an email that Integrated Border Police Team officers found an initial group of 15 people hiding in the woods on Thursday evening, after being notified by the United States Border Patrol.
Officers continued their search until around 10:30 p.m. to find the rest of the group.
Eight people were taken to hospital. According to the RCMP, six of them required treatment for frostbite.
“The two young children were also taken to hospital as a precautionary measure. According to the information available, their lives are not in danger,” the RCMP email said.
One man was also arrested by patrol officers who “had reason to believe he was near the scene to pick up several of these migrants with his car.” His vehicle was seized.
All of the people who were intercepted have applied for asylum, RCMP said. Their cases are now in the hands of the Canada Border Services Agency.
RCMP reminded people that it is extremely dangerous to attempt to cross the border illegally, especially in winter, when people are often ill-equipped to face the cold.
Haitians recruited on TikTok for meatpacking jobs sue JBS for workplace abuses
Class-action lawsuit with 1,000 plaintiffs alleges discrimination, deceptive recruitment, overcrowded housing and dangerous line speeds at a Greeley, Colorado facility
by The Haitian Times Dec. 21, 2025
Overview:
More than 1,000 Haitian workers allege in a lawsuit that JBS subjected them to discriminatory and unsafe working and living conditions after recruiting them under false promises to its Greeley, Colorado, meatpacking plant.
For more than a decade, JBS Greeley—a division of JBS USA Food Company—relied almost exclusively on refugee and immigrant workers to operate its meatpacking plant. Now, more than 1,000 Haitian workers JBS recruited allege in a new class action lawsuit filed Tuesday that the meat processing company discriminated against them and subjected them to hazardous working conditions.
“I’m a part of today’s lawsuit because I don’t want workers – my fellow Haitians or any group of workers who may come to the U.S. in the future – to suffer in the way that I have,” Nesly Pierre, a plaintiff in this suit, said in court documents.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Haitians who worked at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado, after Nov. 1, 2023. The suit alleges the company targeted Haitians as a vulnerable workforce and then subjected them to harsher conditions than non-Haitian workers.
Lawyers for the Haitian plaintiffs also note that during the 2024 campaign, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance targeted Haitians in Ohio with xenophobic rhetoric.
“JBS saw Haitian workers as uniquely exploitable, then discriminated against them for the sake of its bottom line,” said Amal Bouhabib, senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND and counsel for the class in this suit.
“The harm stemming from the choice JBS made will stay with the plaintiffs in this case forever,” he added.”
JBS has not issued any public statements about the suit as of Sunday.
The litigation is now a race against a looming immigration deadline. With TPS for Haitians set to expire in February 2026, the workers risk being deported before their claims can be fully adjudicated. While some plaintiffs have applied for asylum as a safeguard, attorneys describe the move as a “gamble” under the current administration.
The suit also harkens back to similar cases in other states, such as Ohio, of newcomer Haitians being recruited with promises of housing, only to be left in squalor.
Seeking out vulnerable immigrants
In the lawsuit, the claimants say that JBS, one of the world’s largest animal protein producers, intentionally and strategically recruited immigrants seeking humanitarian relief to fill its workforce.
After a series of immigration raids in 2006, the company saw its workforce shrink by 10% almost overnight. To offset ongoing losses and maintain productivity, JBS—whose annual revenue tops $73 billion—began working directly with resettlement agencies and local service organizations to recruit immigrants with work authorization, the suit alleges.
Initial recruits came from Somalia, Eritrea and the Congo, followed later by workers from Myanmar, South Sudan and the Middle East.
The recruitment strategy worked.
Within a year of the raid, Greeley’s foreign-born population grew to more than 12 percent, a 60 percent increase from seven years earlier.
But after a series of labor and legal challenges between 2020 and 2022—including COVID-19 outbreaks, worker-led collective bargaining efforts, and a federal lawsuit over the unlawful employment of children—JBS once again found itself in need of new workers.
The company’s solution: recently arrived Haitians with humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allow them to work legally.
“They don’t pray and they don’t need to go to the bathroom,” one JBS Greeley supervisor allegedly told a team of Somali workers about Haitians in December 2023.
The new recruits also were not part of covered by existing union bargaining agreements, the suit states.
TikTok promises led to squalid housing and dangerous shifts
According to the lawsuit, recruitment began in late 2023, after Mackenson Remy, a Haitian immigrant living in Colorado, met with JBS Greeley HR recruiter and supervisor Edmond Ebah. The pair devised a plan to use Remy’s TikTok to recruit Haitians for at least 60 openings slaughtering, butchering and packaging meat.
Using footage from inside the plant, Remy created a TikTok promising jobs with no English-language requirements and employer-provided housing while workers settled in Greeley. Haitians who had initially settled in Indiana, Ohio, Florida and other states saw the videos and decided to go west, spending thousands to make the trip.
“When I first saw a video recruiting Haitian workers to the JBS plant in Greeley, I was excited for a great opportunity,” Pierre said. “But immediately upon arrival to an overcrowded hotel room, I knew something was wrong, and that was only the beginning.”
The lawsuit alleges those promises were false and that workers incurred hefty travel expenses and paid improper recruitment fees to secure the jobs.
Although recruiters promised them that JBS would “take care” of their housing, workers described the living conditions as “squalid” and “inhospitable.” When they arrived, recruits were allegedly crammed by the dozens into the Rainbow Motel, where as many as 11 people shared a single room with only one bed and one bathroom.
Pierre likened the conditions to a “jail cell,” saying workers were forced to sleep on the floor near the door where frigid winter air seeped in. Others reported “rancid” smells and a lack of kitchen facilities that left some unable to eat for days.
As the motel reached capacity, recruiters reportedly moved the overflow—up to 60 people—into a single 5-bedroom house that sometimes lacked electricity, heat and running water in the winter.
Despite these conditions, the complaint alleges, the workers were charged exorbitant weekly fees, ranging from $60 for a spot on the floor of the house to $500 for a shared motel room—a situation the union has called exploitative and akin to human trafficking.
Unsafe conditions, treatment at plant detailed
At the plant, Haitian workers were allegedly subjected to more dangerous and degrading conditions than their co-workers.
According to the lawsuit and union reports, JBS allegedly segregated newly recruited Haitian workers onto the “B Shift”—the afternoon shift from 3:00 pm to 11:30 pm—and subjected them to dangerous working conditions to maximize production. The union describes a “White Bone” program instituted by management, which demanded workers strip meat to the bone at this accelerated pace, leading to severe repetitive stress injuries.
While industry standards suggest a maximum safe line speed of 390 head of cattle per hour, the complaint alleges managers pushed the Haitian-staffed shift to speeds as high as 440 head per hour.
Pierre reported that the line moved so relentlessly that he could not unclench his hand from his meat hook, leaving his fingers permanently stuck in a “clawing position.”
The lawsuit further alleges that JBS systematically compromised worker safety by refusing to provide training in Creole. Despite knowing the recruits did not speak English or Spanish, the company conducted safety orientations in those languages and directed supervisors to falsify testing records to claim the workers understood them. This practice reportedly allowed JBS to rush workers onto the “kill floor” without the knowledge necessary to protect themselves from dangerous machinery and chemicals.
Beyond physical hazards, the complaint describes a discriminatory environment where basic human needs were ignored. Haitian workers claim they were routinely denied unscheduled bathroom breaks, a right afforded to other employees, forcing some to urinate on themselves or deliberately dehydrate and starve themselves to avoid needing the restroom during shifts.
When injuries occurred, the company allegedly obstructed access to care. In one instance, when Carlos Saint Aubin, a plaintiff in the class action lawsuit, suffered severe chest pain, he was reportedly given a “hot towel” by the on-site clinic and sent back to the line.
The union also contends that JBS coerced workers into signing waivers in English they did not understand, effectively forcing them to forfeit their rights to workers’ compensation. Further, the complaint alleges, JBS management was aware of both the exploitative recruitment practices and the housing conditions, but continued hiring Haitian workers to secure what it describes as a compliant workforce.
“JBS USA’s CEO has said that his job feels so fun, it doesn’t even feel like working,” Bouhabib said.
“Meanwhile, his Haitian workers are suffering life-altering injuries due to the inhumane conditions at the Greeley plant,” Bouhabib added. “These workers are bravely standing up and asserting their humanity to JBS through today’s action.”
Juno Turner, litigation director at Towards Justice, said the treatment described in the lawsuit reflects broader challenges facing immigrant workers.
“No worker should experience the exploitation and abuse that our clients have endured,” Turner said in a statement. “That these workers are treated so cruelly amid the current unprecedented attack on immigrant communities just adds insult to literal injury.”