- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Trump’s visit to Florida met with protests over immigration decision for Haitians
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, JULIE BROWN AND LANCE DIXON
South Florida community leaders Tuesday decried the Trump administration’s decision to return nearly 60,000 Haitians to their quake-ravaged homeland, calling it “heartbreaking” and “shameful” while vowing that their fight has just begun.
“We all know that Haiti is not ready to absorb so many of its children,” said Gepsie Metellus, executive director of Sant La, the Haitian Neighborhood Center in Miami. “This is a sad day, a very shameful day, a depressing day especially on a Thanksgiving eve where a nation of immigrants would be rebuking immigrants.”
The outrage spread to Palm Beach, too. Hundreds of Florida hospitality workers came by the busload from across the state to protest at President Donald Trump’s private beach club, Mar-a-Lago, where he was scheduled to arrive Tuesday for the Thanksgiving holiday. The union workers from Unite Here waved flags and marched in the searing sun on a bridge overlooking the resort, chanting “Shut it down.”
Their message to the president: If you deport us, many of the resorts, theme parks and hotels, like yours, won’t be able to operate.
“I have six children. My mom and dad were killed in the earthquake. My country is nothing now,’’ said Marie Partait, who immigrated fromHaiti15 years ago.
2) Carvalho: Over my dead body shall anybody remove any child from the sanctity of our classrooms
Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools says "Over my dead body shall anybody remove any child from the sanctity of our classrooms, from the sanctuaries that schools represent in our community," during a news conference with U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson and faith-based and community leaders who support extending Temporary Protected Status on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017.
Al DiazMiami Herald
A $9-an-hour dishwasher at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Partait has been living in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, or TPS — the immigration status that protected her from deportation and that the Trump administration announced Monday will end on July 22, 2019. If Haitians choose to stay after that, they would face possible detention and deportation.
The decision by Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Elaine Duke came two weeks after she also ended the status for 2,500 Nicaraguans. She put on hold a similar decision for 57,000 Hondurans, triggering an automatic six-month extension.
But it was the decision about Haiti that incensed South Florida members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.
“This announcement will just give us more fight power,” U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, who represents one of the largest constituents of Haitian-American voters in the United States, said during a Tuesday morning press conference in front of the Miami-Dade School Board. “We will continue to advocate.”
3) Haitian student pleads for TPS extension
Marlene Bastien of the Haitian Women of Miami and other local leaders are host a press conference condemning the Trump administration's decision to end TPS for thousands of Haitians.
Charles Trainor Jr.Miami Herald
Supporters of TPS in Congress have introduced at least three bills in Congress, including the bipartisanExtending Status Protection for Eligible Refugees with Established Residency Act, or ESPERER, which spells hope in French. With Miami Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo as the chief sponsor,it would provide a path to permanent residency and American citizenship for immigrants currently living in the U.S. under TPS.
Wilson, who is a co-sponsor of Curbelo’s bill and another TPS-related bill by New York Democratic Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, said she plans to file her own legislation in the coming days. Her bill, she said, will be exclusively focused on the estimated 59,000 Haitians with TPS who meet certain requirements to adjust their status to legal permanent resident within three years of the bill’s passage.
Similar to TPS’ current provisions, the Wilson proposal will allow Haitians to legally live and work in the U.S. while their immigration application is being processed. Her office was still working on the wording of the bill Tuesday.
“It’s the only solution we can come up with to make sure that these people are not deported back to Haiti,” she said.
Immigration attorney Ira Kurzban said he’s preparing a lawsuit against DHS, which determined that the “extraordinary but temporary conditions caused by the 2010 earthquake... no longer exist.” The Obama administration granted TPS for Haitians after the quake.
“The conditions are now 10 times worse. We’ve had the cholera epidemic. You had two hurricanes,” said Kurzban, arguing that DHS failed to follow the law in determining why Haiti’s TPS should not be extended, basing its decision on ideology rather than facts. “They didn’t consider all of the factors they were supposed to consider.”
Kurzban noted that prior to extending Haitians’ TPS designation for only six months in May, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which administers the TPS program, had madeinquiries into the Haitian community’s criminal history.
“We think it’s... part of the long pattern of discrimination and racism against Haitians,” he said.
But whether by lawsuit or law, many Haitian TPS holders Tuesday continued to hold out hope that Monday’s decision to cancel the protection in 18 months would be reversed.
“Maybe it’s just the beginning for Congress to work harder with DHS to fulfill our dream,” Yolnick Jeune, 45, a TPS holder said during a press conference at Haitian Women of Miami on Tuesday afternoon. “Our dream is not to go back in a country that is not in a stable condition.”
Another TPS recipient, Ronyde Ponthieux, urged Trump to think about how the decision impacts families that have invested in the country. He was joined by his 10-year-old daughter Christina, a youth leader with Haitian Women of Miami, a group that also denounced the decision.
“I have a home here. I have a house here, but I don’t have anything in Haiti,” Ponthieux said. “We all know Haiti is not ready to receive those people.”
His daughter asked the president to consider the 27,000 U.S.-born children of Haitian TPS-holders and others with TPS — particularly as the holiday season approaches.
“Before you go to sleep at night, think about what you’re doing,” she said, wearing a hall monitor sash and school uniform. “What am I going to give thanks about on Thanksgiving Day?”
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who organized the Tuesday morning press conference in Miami with Father Reginald Jean-Mary of Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church in Little Haiti, said the decision will divide mothers from sons, fathers from daughters.
“I cannot be a superintendent of schools. I cannot be a father, I cannot be an immigrant, citizen of this nation if I did not stand with the 12,000 K-12 children impacted by TPS and the 5,700 adult learners currently enrolled in our school system equally impacted by TPS,” Carvalho said. “This is a matter of decency. This is a matter of common sense. This is matter of respect. This is a matter of compassion for those in greatest need.”
DHS has said only Congress can — and should— provide a permanent fix.
Curbelo, touting his legislation as a solution that could be much better than the TPS program for Haitians, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans, said he is united with other members of the South Florida congressional delegation on the issue.
“Today, while we have heavy hearts, we still have hope and we will continue working together until this gets down because we are a welcoming community, a community that appreciates immigrants,” he said. “This is only a tragedy if Congress fails to act.”
Légende sous la photo
Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, along with faith-based and community leaders hold a news conference to announce support for extending Temporary Protected Status on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017. On Monday, the Trump administration said it was extending TPS for about 60,000 Haitians for 18 months until July 22, 2019 and then permanently ending the program for Haiti. AL DIAZ
ECONOMY WILL SUFFER IF TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DEPORTS IMMIGRANTS FLEEING CRISES, ADVOCATES SAY
BY NICOLE RODRIGUEZON 11/9/17 AT 12:34 PM
The U.S. economy would take a huge hit if the Trump administration decides to stop offering Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to thousands of immigrants who have fled natural disasters, political persecution and pandemics, immigration advocacy groups and lawmakers said.
More than 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti have been granted TPS, and its elimination would result in the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) taking a $164 billion hit over the next decade, according to the Center for American Progress. It would also result in a $6.9 billion reduction to Social Security and Medicare contributions over a decade, the Immigrant Legal Resource Centersaid.
More than 80 percent of TPS holders from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti are believed to be employed, and if they could no longer perform their jobs, American employers would have to spend $967 million in hiring and training new employees, ILRC estimated.
“TPS holders are essential contributors to the U.S. economy and society, and provide critical financial support to assist recovery and stability in their home countries—both things the Trump administration should consider as it decides the future of TPS,” the Center for American Progress said.
Deadlines to renew TPS for immigrants from El Salvador and Haiti are looming. At least 60 days before TPS is set to expire, the Homeland Security secretary must review the conditions for the TPS designation and decide if protection is still warranted.
Acting Secretary Elaine Duke this month ended TPS for 2,500 recipients displaced from Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch in 1999. The formerly protected immigrants have about a year to leave the U.S.
Duke is weighing the status for 57,000 Hondurans, having extended the expiration date by six months (it had been January 5). According to The Washington Post, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly pressured Duke to expel the Hondurans, but she refused.
A decision for 50,000 Haitians, whose TPS is set to expire January 22, is expected around Thanksgiving. TPS for 195,000 recipients from El Salvador expires March 9.
Haitians received TPS in 2010 after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook the island, killing 220,000 people. Salvadorans received TPS in 2001 after a series of earthquakes left tens of thousands homeless.
The Homeland Security secretary can designate countries for temporary TPS in cases of war, famine, epidemics or natural disasters. TPS currently is granted to recipients from 13 foreign countries.
The majority of both Salvadoran and Honduran TPS holders have lived in the United States for at least 20 years, and at least 16 percent of Haitian TPS holders have lived in the U.S. for at least two decades. TPS holders from the three countries have 273,000 American-born children, according to the American Immigration Council.
Losing TPS would be devastating to those children, immigrant advocacy groups say.
“They would either face separation from their parents or be forced to relocate to a country foreign to them,” the Center for American Progress said. “Even the fear of family separation or deportation of parents has been found to have detrimental effects on children’s cognitive and psychological well-being.”
Job sectors anticipated to suffer the most from elimination of TPS are the construction, restaurant and food services, landscaping, child care, hospitality and grocery industries—all of which employ high rates of TPS holders.
Florida lawmakers have been particularly vocal in demanding Congress grant permanent residency to TPS holders from the three countries. The state stands to lose an estimated 72,000 TPS holders if protection is revoked.
Four Florida lawmakers late last month introduced bipartisan legislation to grant legal permanent resident status to more than 300,000 qualified Nicaraguan, Honduran, Salvadoran and Haitian migrants.
“The continued short-term extensions of TPS have created anxiety and uncertainty not only for these migrants and their families, but also for their employers and neighbors whose prosperity also depends on them,” Republican U.S. Representative Carlos Curbelo said in an October 31 statement. “While I will continue to support extensions for Temporary Protected Status, this bipartisan legislation would give these migrants the peace of mind to continue giving back to their communities, contributing to our economy and supporting their families.”
Release Date:
November 20, 2017
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
Acting Secretary Elaine Duke Announcement
On Temporary Protected Status For Haiti
WASHINGTON— Today, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke announced her decision to terminate the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Haiti with a delayed effective date of 18 months to allow for an orderly transition before the designation terminates on July 22, 2019. This decision follows then-Secretary Kelly’s announcement in May 2017 that Haiti had made considerable progress, and that the country’s designation will likely not be extended past six months.
The decision to terminate TPS for Haiti was made after a review of the conditions upon which the country’s original designation were based and whether those extraordinary but temporary conditions prevented Haiti from adequately handling the return of their nationals, as required by statute. Based on all available information, including recommendations received as part of an inter-agency consultation process, Acting Secretary Duke determined that those extraordinary but temporary conditions caused by the 2010 earthquake no longer exist. Thus, under the applicable statute, the current TPS designation must be terminated.
Acting Secretary Duke met with Haitian Foreign Minister Antonio Rodrigue and Haitian Ambassador to the United States Paul Altidor recently in Washington to discuss the issue.
In 2017 alone, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services conducted extensive outreach to the Haitian communities throughout the country. These include but are not limited to community forums on TPS, panel discussions with Haitian community organizers, stakeholder teleconferences, regular meetings with TPS beneficiaries, news releases to the Haitian community, meetings with Haitian government officials, meetings at local churches, and listening sessions.
Since the 2010 earthquake, the number of displaced people in Haiti has decreased by 97 percent. Significant steps have been taken to improve the stability and quality of life for Haitian citizens, and Haiti is able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens. Haiti has also demonstrated a commitment to adequately prepare for when the country’s TPS designation is terminated.
In May 2017, then-Secretary Kelly announced a limited extension for Haiti’s TPS designation, stating that he believed there were indications that Haiti – if its recovery from the 2010 earthquake continued at pace – may not warrant further TPS extension past January 2018. At the time, then-Secretary Kelly stated that his six-month extension should give Haitian TPS recipients living in the United States time to attain travel documents and make other necessary arrangements for their ultimate departure from the United States, and should also provide the Haitian government with the time it needs to prepare for the future repatriation of all current TPS recipients.
To allow for an orderly transition, the effective date of the termination of TPS for Haiti will be delayed 18 months. This will provide time for individuals with TPS to arrange for their departure or to seek an alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, if eligible. It will also provide time for Haiti to prepare for the return and reintegration of their citizens. During this timeframe, USCIS will work with the State Department, other DHS components and the Government of Haiti to help educate relevant stakeholders and facilitate an orderly transition.
Haitians with TPS will be required to reapply for Employment Authorization Documents in order to legally work in the United States until the end of the respective termination or extension periods. Further details about this termination for TPS will appear in a Federal Register notice.
From: Little Haiti Cultural Complex <
Date: November 23, 2017 at 10:38:56 AM EST
To: <
Subject: You Are Cordially Invited to Miami Art Week at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex | December 6- 10
Reply-To: Little Haiti Cultural Complex <
Earthquakes could get worse in 2018 due to Earth's slowing rotation
Every so often, Earth's rotation slows down or speeds up by a few microseconds. While the changes don't affect us directly, some scientists think recent slowdowns could be a sign of big earthquakes to come.
In a new study, researchers looked at every earthquake since 1900 that registered a magnitude of 7 or larger and saw an uptick in the number of big quakes about every 32 years. They also noticed an unusual pattern: Earth's rotation would slow about five years before every cluster of earthquakes.
The scientists can't explain for sure how the slower rotations led to more severe earthquakes yet. They suggest the small changes between Earth's crust and liquid core might be the culprit.
But considering Earth's most recent slowing period started more than four years ago, researchers say 2018 is ripe for severe earthquakes.
It's unclear just how many more there'll be, but one of the study's authors told The Guardian, "We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018." That's more than three times the number of significant magnitude 7 or higher earthquakes so far in 2017.
Contractor for Puerto Rico Power Suspends Work, Citing Unpaid Bills
By FRANCES ROBLESNOV. 21, 2017
- With less than half the power on Puerto Rico restored two months after a deadly hurricane hit the island, the company hired to help bring back the electricity is “standing down,” it said, because it is owed tens of millions of dollars for weeks of work.
Whitefish Energy Holdings had already been fired last month by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority after widespread criticism and multiple investigations of a $300 million contract it received to help repair the island’s power grid. Even with the cancellation of the contentious contract, the company and its 500 workers were supposed to stay on the job until the end of the month.
Puerto Rico’s bankrupt electric company, known as Prepa, is behind in its payments and Whitefish cannot continue fronting the cash needed to hire subcontracted workers, Whitefish said. Dozens of line workers from Florida have already begun heading home, because the utilities they work for are nervous about payment, the company said in a letter to Prepa. It added that it hoped to resume work once the payment issue was resolved.
According to the Whitefish letter, the company has billed about $103 million — and $83 million is still outstanding.
The billing dispute comes as the amount of power generation in Puerto Rico has actually declined in the past week. More than eight weeks after Hurricane Maria swept through the island, toppling power poles, transmission lines and towers, the grid is performing at just 49.4 percent of its capacity. Prepa had reached 50 percent last Wednesday, before several power failures knocked out service to many communities that had seen electricity restored.
Thousands of businesses remain closed and millions of people are in the dark.
The payment dispute underscores the chaotic atmosphere at Prepa, which is $9 billion in debt and in search of a new chief executive after the last bosswas forced out on Friday.
“It may have not been the best business decision coming to work for a bankrupt island,” Whitefish’s chief executive, Andy Techmanski, told CNN.
He said the company had been assured it would be reimbursed for its work by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But FEMA distanced itselfwhen curious clauses in the contract saying it had been approved by the federal government and could not be audited were made public. FEMA’s director has vowed not to commit “one dollar” to the contract, and it is unclear whether Prepa has enough money to pay the bills itself.
A spokesman for Prepa said that the utility had stopped making payments after one of the subcontracted companies Whitefish had hired complained that it had not been paid. The subcontractor, Prepa said, asked for a freeze on Whitefish’s payments.
“Faced with this claim, Prepa had to stop the pending payments to Whitefish until the situation with the Whitefish subcontractor is clarified,” the company said in a statement. The statement did not name the subcontractor.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Safe or not? The contradiction in U.S.-Haiti policy
The Trump administration recently ordered Haitian temporary residents to go home saying conditions have improved since a 2010 earthquake. Yet the State Department warns American tourists about traveling there. Something doesn't add up?
With beautiful, palm-lined beaches and fertile green hillsides, the island of Ile-a-Vache off Haiti's south coast ought to be a tourist mecca.
But the island's four hotels are struggling to make ends meet, in part due to a U.S. State Department warning which discourages Americans from risking the journey by road and a short boat ride to get there. Many Haitians complain the travel warning unjustly stigmatizes the country and hurts the economy, creating even deeper woes for the poorest nation in the hemisphere.
The decision last month by the Trump administration to end a temporary visa program for 60,000 Haitians in the U.S., makes the travel ban even more perplexing.
“The fact that the administration is sending 60,000 Haitians back to a country that our own State Department says is too dangerous for Americans to visit is ridiculous," Florida's U.S. Senator, Bill Nelson told Univision News. "There is no reason to send 60,000 Haitians back to a country that cannot provide for them. And I am strongly urging the administration to reconsider this disastrous decision,” he added.
"Sending them back to die."
Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean once described Ile-a-Vache to me as "Haiti's best kept secret." He wished more people could get to see its beauty.
Haitians who lose their TPS would be sent back "on a starve mission," he told Billboard magazine, "It's like you're sending them back to die."
STATE SENATOR DAPHNE CAMPBELL APPOINTED AS CHAIR OF THE HAITIAN TEMPORARY RELIEF TASK FORCE
TALLAHASSEE, FL –State Senator Daphne Campbell (D-Miami) has been appointed Chair of the Haitian Temporary Relief Task Force, an organization formed to advocate on behalf of tens of thousands of Haitian refugees in Florida who fled their native country but now face deportation in the near future.
The appointment of Senator Campbell was made earlier this week by Representative Kionne McGhee, who heads the Miami-Dade County Legislative Delegation.
Her selection comes on the heels of the decision rendered by the Trump Administration last month regarding Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status. Concerned with the expiring sanctuary date and uncertainty with the Trump Administration, Senator Campbell has been advocating on behalf of the Haiti Temporary Protected Status by filing Senate Memorial 442 Haiti Temporary Protected Status and SM 888 ESPERER Act of 2017. She has also attempted to raise public awareness and garner additional support for the refugees’ plight by holding press conferences, and traveling to Washington, DC to speak with elected officials such as Senator Bill Nelson, Congressman Carlos Curbelo, Congressman Alcee Hastings and a host of other prominent officials.
In addition, she also held meetings with Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director to the White House, Billy Kirkland, and Special Advisor for Western Hemisphere & Global Economics- Office of the Vice President, Landon Loomis as well as Omarosa Manigualt, Assistant to the President and Director of Communications Office of Public Liaison. On November 17, 2017, the Friday before the decision was rendered, the Senator spoke with Acting Assistant Secretary Simon Henshaw and Deputy Secretary Ken Merton both with the Department of State. The morning of the decision, November 20, 2017, Senator Campbell held a telephone conversation with Acting Assistant Secretary John Barsa, Department of Homeland Security.
Senator Campbell advocated that Haiti TPS be extended for an additional 18 months as it was scheduled to expire on January 22, 2018 causing some 60,000 Haitians to be forcibly returned back to Haiti. Despite multiple campaign promises that he would be their “biggest champion,” President Trump’s administration agreed to allow them to remain in the USA only until July 22, 2019.
Jovenel Moïse, the next chair of CARICOM
The news was just published on the site of the Community of the Caribbean (CARICOM) last Friday. The presidency of this supranational organization will be assured by the Republic of Haiti at the beginning of next year, starting in February.
A news release tells that the General Secretary of CARICOM, Irwin LaRocque, spoke to President Jovenel Moise last Thursday with the aim of "giving his usual briefing to the new president."
The Haitian president is going to succeed Dr. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada who just spent six months as president of this common market grouping 15 States of the Caribbean region. This act falls within the framework of a system of rotation predefined within the organization.
It is also mentioned that Haiti will host the 29th intersession meeting of heads of government of CARICOM in February, 2018. As a result, the preparations have already begun between representatives of the Haitian government and the Secretarial department of CARICOM based in Guiana.
Sunrise Airways connect Haiti to Curaco
After having served customers in the Dominican République, Cuba and Chile, the company Sunrise Airways is spreading its wings in Curaçao. On Tuesday, November 28th, before government officials, business representatives, and journalists, the company launched its inaugural flight to Willemstad in Curaçao
More than a hundred passengers were received at the International Airport of Wilemstad. They were welcomed aboard the flight of the airbus 320 with a warm welcome from the crew.
AG Racine Wins Judgment for More Than $425K From Company Running Student Loan Debt Relief Scam
Court Orders Student Aid Center to Pay Full Restitution to Borrowers, $233K in Penalties
WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced today that his office obtained a judgment for more than $425,000 in restitution and civil penalties from a company that deceived student borrowers into paying fees for services they could have obtained for free. The Superior Court of the District of Columbia ordered the company, Student Aid Center, Inc., to repay 233 District consumers for all fees the company had unlawfully collected, which total $192,824.95. The court also permanently barred the company from misleading consumers and charging up-front fees for student loan debt relief services.
In addition, the court also ordered Student Aid Center to pay $233,000 as a civil penalty.
Attorney General Racine previously won a judgment against Student Aid Center, Inc. and the company’s owners, Ramiro Fernandez-Moris and Damien Alvarez, for unlawfully marketing student debt relief services to District consumers — including services that borrowers can get for free from the U.S. Department of Education. The court found the company and its owners liable for misrepresenting the company’s services and unlawfully charging fees of between $600 and $1,000 in advance, while consumers received little in return.
A copy of the final judgment is attached. Student Aid Center, Inc. has also been sued by the attorneys general of Florida, Kentucky and Washington state, and by the Federal Trade Commission.
Student Loan Resources
Borrowers with questions about their student loans should visit the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) Student Loan Resource Page. It provides District residents with free resources about repayment options and up-to-date information about how to manage student loan debt – including information about how to avoid student loan scams. OAG’s Student Loan Resource Page is available at oag.dc.gov/studentloans.
Consumers with complaints against Student Aid Center, other debt-relief scams, or any other consumer issue can contact our Office of Consumer Protection at (202) 442-9828, by sending an e-mail to
President Jovenel Moïse laid the first stone for the construction of the micro-industrial park of Moreau / Camp-Perrin
President Jovenel Moise, in the presence of the Vincent Dégert, head of the delegation of the European Union in Haiti, and several members of the minister's personal staff, proceeded, last Friday with the laying of the first stone of the building of the micro-industrial park of Moreau / Camp-Perrin. This is part of Moise’s vision to support local companies and to create more jobs to revitalize the economy of the country.
In his speech, the Head of State was anxious to greet the partnership between the Republic of Haiti and the European Union which allowed the launch of this vast construction project, which will eventually result into 42 micro-industrial parks.
He used the opportunity to announce the construction of 40 kilometers of road that will connect the municipality of Moreau with the city of Les Cayes. This initiative will help considerably improve the living conditions of the inhabitants and restore the dignity of the citizens of this region whom for a long time have been isolated. Furthermore, the «Ravine Sèche » whose floods constantly threaten the population of Moreau, will be cleaned out within the framework of the actions of the Caravan of Change in the Grand Sud.
For his part, Vincent Dégert, head of the delegation of the European Union in Haiti, an important partner for this project initiated under the presidency of Michel Joseph Martelly, said he noticed that the South has found its vitality following the devastating passage of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in October, 2016. He believes that the initiative of the Administration Moïse-Lafontant to revitalize the national production and decentralize the economy, will help to recover lost networks and find openings on the overseas markets.
National day of organ transplant
The Haitian Transplant Center tries to make kidney transplants accessible
At the initiative of the Haitian Transplant Center, a ceremony was organized last Thursday, at the Montana Hotel. On this occasion, the director of the center, Jacques Maurice Jeudy, confided that the Haitian Transplant Center developed a partnership with the Transplant Center of the University of Miami, to allow patients to have access to kidney transplants in Haiti.
According to Dr. Jacques Maurice Jeudy, there is between 15,000 and 20,000 Haitians who suffer from renal failure in the country. High blood pressure, diabetes, energy drinks and anti-inflammatory medicine are, according to him, the main causes of this disease.
The director of the Haitian center of transplant, informs that eight kidney transplants were already done in the country. "At least eight renal transplants were performed in the country from 2009 till 2017, says the surgeon, who, on November 30th, 2009, performed the first kidney transplant in Haiti. Two others are planned for this month."
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haitian folk singer who had sharp words for politicians dies in Miami Beach
BY GLENN GARVIN
Joseph Emmanuel “Manno” Charlemagne, whose acerbic folk songs about Haitian politics kept him in exile — often in South Florida — for much of his life, died Sunday in a Miami Beach hospital where he was being treated for cancer.
The death of Charlemagne, 69, prompted Haitian President Jovenel Moïse to pause in an official visit to Europe to tweet that the demise of “the committed singer Manno Charlemagne is a great loss for the country and for the cultural sector in particular. My sympathies to the family and loved ones of this patriot who loved his country with passion. Haiti is grateful to him.”
That was a significant departure from the way most of Haitian officialdom regarded Charlemagne throughout his life. Rare was the Haitian politician who didn’t feel the sting of Charlemagne’s pungent lyrics, which were anything but subtle.
His songs portrayed the various members of the Duvalier dynasty, which ruled Haiti for three decades beginning in the 1950s, as enthusiastic consumers of feces.
In recent years, Charlemagne had largely disdained politics and gone back to music. He was a frequent performer at the Miami Beach restaurant Tap Tap, even after his diagnosis with multiple forms of cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
Jovenel Moise travels to Europe with a Haitian Business delegation by Rezo Nodwes
President Moise was scheduled to meet, among others, French President Emmanuel Macron and King Philippe of Belgium. The Office of Communication of the Presidency informed the population that Haitian President, Jovenel Moise, accompanied with First Lady, Martine Moise and a delegation of entrepreneurs, was to begin an official European tour in Europe from December 9 to 15 with stops in Paris, France and Brussel, Belgium.
In the French capital, on December 12, the President was scheduled to participate at the summit on financing of the Climatic Action (One Planet), which was to gather several heads of state and of government. Outside the summit, the Haitian President was to speak to his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron and discuss bilateral cooperation between France and Haiti.
He was also scheduled to meet the Managing Director of the French Agency of Development (AFD), Rémy Rioux, the General Secretary of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF), Michaelle Jean and the Chief Executive Officer of the UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
The Head of State was to introduce members of Haiti’s private sector to representatives of France’s business community during a meeting with the association of French Entrepreneurs (MEDEF).
Before ending his French tour, President Jovenel Moise will also travel to Normandy, in the Northwest of France, where he will tour the Water Agency, an important institution which "finances the works and the actions which contribute to protecting water resources and fighting against pollutions."
On Wednesday, December 13th, the President was scheduled to travel to Belgium where a busy itinerary was awaiting him. First, the Haitian Head of State and the members of the Haitian private sector were to speak to representatives of the Chamber of Commerce of Brussels and Antwerp. He was then to attend lunch with Secretary-President of Wallonia / Brussels, Rudy Demotte.
Then, the President was to travel to offices of the European Union (EU) where he was to have an interview with Madam Frederica Mogherini, the second Vice-president of the European Commission and the High representative of the Union for the Foreign Affairs and the Safety policy.
Shortly after, the Head of State was to meet Pim Van Ballekom, Vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB)((BEI),(EUROPEAN INVESTMENT BANK)).
On Thursday, December 14th, the President was to speak with Neven Mimica, European Commissioner for the international cooperation of development before ending his Belgian tour by a meeting at the royal palace where he was invited by their majesties King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
President Jovenel Moise was scheduled to return to Haiti on Saturday, December 16, 2017.
Note from the U.S. State Department
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to carefully consider the risks of traveling to Haiti due to its current security environment and lack of adequate medical facilities and response. This is an update to the Travel Warning issued on September 12, 2017.
Kidnapping remains a threat, and armed robberies and violent assaults reported by U.S. citizens have risen in recent years. Do not share specific travel plans with strangers. Be aware that newly arrived travelers are targeted. Arrange to have your host or organization meet you at the airport upon arrival or pre-arranged airport to hotel transfers. Embassy personnel are prohibited from visiting public banks and ATMs, which are often targeted by criminals.
Fewer incidents of crime are reported outside of Port-au-Prince, but Haitian authorities' ability to respond to emergencies is limited and in some areas nonexistent. U.S. Embassy employees are discouraged from walking in city neighborhoods, including in Petionville, during daylight, and are prohibited from walking in city neighborhoods, including Petionville, after dark. Visit only establishments with secured parking lots. U.S. Embassy personnel are under a curfew from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. Embassy personnel must receive permission from the Embassy security officer to travel to some areas of Port-au-Prince, thus limiting the Embassy's ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens.
Protests, including tire burning and road blockages, are frequent and often spontaneous. Avoid all demonstrations. The Haitian National Police's ability to assist U.S. citizens during disturbances is limited. Have your own plans for quickly exiting the country if necessary;
Medical care infrastructure, ambulances, and other emergency services are limited throughout Haiti. Check that your organization has reliable infrastructure, evacuation, and medical support in place. Comprehensive medical evacuation insurance is strongly advised for all travelers.
For further information:
See the State Department's travel website for the Worldwide Caution, Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, and Haiti's Country Specific Information.
Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive security messages and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
Contact the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, located at Boulevard du October, Route de Tabarre telephone: 509-2229-8000; after hours emergency telephone: 509-2229-8000;fax: 509-2229-8027; e-mail:
Call 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or 1-202-501-4444 from other countries from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. federal holidays).
Missionary in US custody on charges he abused Haitian boys
BALTIMORE – A Christian missionary who allegedly told a counselor in Virginia that he had sexual contact with minors in Haiti has been arrested and is in federal custody, authorities said Friday.
If the allegations are proven, James Arbaugh, formerly of the Virginia town of Stuarts Draft, would be only the latest missionary to take advantage of Haiti's extensive poverty and anemic rule of law to abuse vulnerable youngsters. He lived in Haiti for at least a decade and described himself on a personal blog as a missionary with a group called "Walking Together for Christ Haiti."
A federal affidavit filed by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations says a counselor in Virginia reported Arbaugh to authorities in September after he allegedly disclosed sexual contact with boys. The affidavit alleges he told investigators in subsequent interviews that he "groomed" or had sexual contact including oral sex with at least 21 boys. One 5-year-old boy he allegedly molested was the son of a pastor in Jeremie, a city devastated last year by Hurricane Matthew.
"Arbaugh described sexual acts that took place with at least 15 minors which would be considered illicit sexual conduct," special agent Tami Ketcham wrote in the affidavit.
Carissa Cutrell, a spokeswoman with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Arbaugh is in federal custody. Authorities have 30 days to indict Arbaugh, ask a judge for an extension or dismiss the charges, according to Brian McGinn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in the western district of Virginia. It wasn't immediately clear if Arbaugh has a lawyer.
Teams of missionaries are a very common sight on U.S. flights to Haiti. For decades, they have done vital work running a network of hospitals, orphanages, schools and food-distribution sites in the hemisphere's poorest country. But over the years, some foreign missionaries have been arrested for sexually abusing children. Some have worked in Haiti's poorly regulated orphanages, where many youths are not orphans at all, but sent by parents who can't support them.
"I expect that what we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg," said Brian Concannon, executive director of the Boston-based advocacy group Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.
Concannon said the Haitian government needs to do a far better job of protecting its most vulnerable citizens, but the first line of defense against sexual predators preying on children should be the church groups that send missionaries overseas in the first place.
"They need to step up to ensure they are not supporting child abusers," he said.
On his blog, Harbaugh has photo galleries that show him lying on what appears to be a beach with naked or half-naked children. He described himself as an evangelist and religious film producer.
The affidavit, which was published by The News Leader newspaper, alleges that he would swim naked with Haitian youngsters while traveling around the country, "and at times genital skin-to-skin touching would take place beneath the water."
A spokesman for the Haitian National Police could not be contacted for comment. A website for the group "Walking Together for Christ Haiti" was not functional.
David McFadden on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dmcfadd
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
Haitian women seek support for children fathered by U.N. troops in Haiti
By Reuters
PUBLISHED: 18:51 GMT, 12 December 2017 |
By Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA, Dec 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Lawyers representing 10 Haitian women who say they had children with United Nations peacekeepers have filed the first legal actions in Haiti against the U.N. and individual peacekeepers for child support and paternity claims.
The lawsuits filed by the Haiti-based human rights group Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), is part of a legal battle by Haitian women to force peacekeepers who they say fathered their children to contribute to their upbringing.
"Having and then abandoning children is not within the official capacity of a U.N. peacekeeper and therefore we argue that this does give a Haitian court jurisdiction to resolve paternity and child support claims," Nicole Phillips, a lawyer at the U.S.-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), who is working on the case, said on Tuesday.
Ten mothers of 11 children who they say were abandoned by U.N. troops are seeking financial support from them. One of the mothers was 17 when she gave birth, which amounts to statutory rape under Haitian law, the IJDH said.
Under the U.N.'s "zero-tolerance policy" sexual relationships between peacekeepers and residents of countries hosting a U.N. mission are strongly discouraged.
Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation responsibility for child support rests with those "individuals who have been established to have fathered children."
"... the United Nations itself cannot legally establish paternity or child support entitlements... compensation is a matter of personal accountability to be determined under national legal processes," Haq said by email.
The 13-year U.N. mission left Haiti in October after being sent in to stablilize a country plagued by political turmoil. The mission introduced a cholera epidemic that killed some 10,000 people and has been dogged by accusations of sexual assault.
The Haitian mothers are struggling to bring up their children they say were fathered by soldiers from the U.N.'s peacekeeping force stationed in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH, who came from Uruguay, Argentina, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, said their lawyer Mario Joseph at BAI, who filed the lawsuits.
"These mothers and their children face severe economic difficulties and discrimination," he said, adding that six of the mothers were left homeless after Hurricane Matthew devastated the Caribbean island last year.
(Reporting by Anastasia Moloney @anastasiabogota, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
Manno funeral at Little Haiti (Miami)
Miami bids farewell to folk singer Manno Charlemagne, the Bob Marley of Haiti
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
DECEMBER 14, 2017 09:08 PM
UPDATED DECEMBER 14, 2017 09:42 PM
They came one last time to pay homage to the firebrand folk singer whose politically charged lyrics set to acoustic guitar melodies put corrupt politicians on notice and inspired a generation of Haitians.
Joseph Emmanuel “Manno” Charlemagne was their Bob Dylan, their Bob Marley — and his stirring lyrics became a shield as they battled dictatorship, struggled with democracy and dreamed of another Haiti.
Now Charlemagne and his deep, crooning voice are gone, taken by cancer in Miami Beach where, for years, he entertained diners at South Beach’s Tap Tap Restaurant with his songs of protest.
His death at 69 on Sunday came after multiple stints in exile, many assassination attempts and a star-studded international campaign by the late filmmaker Jonathan Demme to free him from the Argentine Embassy where he sought haven after a military coup toppled Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. An avowed Marxist who was dubbed the “Caged Bird of Haiti,” he had an unsuccessful tenure as mayor of Port-au-Prince in the mid-90s.
Over the years, his storied activism on behalf of Haiti’s poor — and his political missteps — became the subject of books and films that elevated him to folk-hero status.
“This makes me sad,” said Jean Chaperon, 53, a longtime friend fighting back tears as he stood in the sanctuary of Little Haiti’s Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church, steps away from Charlemagne’s open casket. “He fought hard for the country to change and that didn’t happen.”
Katia Barnave, Charlemagne’s younger sister, said the family decided to hold the public viewing and memorial Mass in Miami before flying his body next week to Haiti.
“He’s been so well known and recognized for decades that it’s just a way for people to pay their respects and honor him in the way that he deserves to be honored,” she said.
Still, Charlemagne, who shuttled back and forth between Miami and Haiti, had a conflicted relationship with the land of the blanc, or foreigner. In one of his most popular tunes, Alyenkat (“Alien Card”), Charlemagne railed against the treatment of Haitians seeking refuge in the United States, a country that he and others accused of invading Haiti on multiple occasions.
“He really loved his country,” said Barnave, who was trying to reconcile how she was unable to fulfill his wish to die in Haiti.
Charlemagne came to Miami in July to go to the doctor. He was fighting lung cancer that had spread to his brain.
“He was who he was, all the way up to the end — a fighter to the last days,” Barnave said.
Jean Michel Lapin, the director general of Haiti’s Ministry of Culture, said the government will pay to bring Charlemagne’s body back to Haiti, and has taken charge of his funeral “to permit the entire country to pay a final homage.”
While South Florida artists and Charlemagne’s Tap Tap band will honor him — and the late Haitian painter Joseph Wilfrid Daleus, who also died Sunday in Miami — at Sounds of Little Haiti on Friday, the Haitian government has organized a musical tribute in Charlemagne’s honor on Tuesday on the Champ de Mars in Port-au-Prince.
His government-sponsored funeral is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 22, also on the Champ de Mars, across from the grounds of the National Palace. Still undecided, Lapin said, is whether Charlemagne will be given a state funeral, the highest honor.
Former Haitian President Michel Martelly, who had been pushing to bring Charlemagne back to Haiti before his death and was instrumental in getting the government to pay for the funeral, said he deserves the state ceremony.
“Based on the dimensions of Manno and how huge he is, why not consider something national?” Martelly told the Miami Herald in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince. “He deserves it.”
Martelly, also a singer who goes by the stage persona “Sweet Micky,” said prior to Charlemagne’s death, plans had been in the works to fly him back to Haiti.
“But he was too weak and could not travel. We had to wait until he recovered — which never happened,” Martelly said.
On Thursday, South Florida’s Haitian community paid tribute to Charlemagne by quoting his lyrics and reminiscing about their time together. Florida Sen. Daphne Campbell, a Haitian American, announced that she was naming N. Sherman Circle in Miramar, where one of Charlemagne’s sons lives, in his honor.
Gary Sanon-Jules, the former general manager of Tap Tap, said that honor, however, belongs in South Beach.
“I’d rather name a street where he lived than where he died. He performed at Tap Tap for 20 years, lived upstairs overlooking Meridian Court,” Sanon-Jules said. “That street embodies a lot of our memories as we all illegally parked our cars to go and listen to Manno Charlemagne and the Tap Tap Band. That street should be renamed Manno Charlemagne Court”
Haitian musician Beethova Obas, who recorded the song Nwel Anme (“Bitter Christmas”) with Charlemagne, said he didn’t know he was so connected to his longtime friend until he appeared to him in his dreams two days before his death.
“He said, ‘I was wondering when you were going to come see me,’” said Obas, who lives in Belgium. Hours later, Obas, onvacation in Port St. Lucie, was at Charlemagne’s bedside “playing all the songs that whenever he was around, he wouldn’t let me sing.” One of the final songs, Obas said he played, was his song Kè’m poze (”I am at peace”).
“I told him, ‘You are facing the light; you have to go to the light. You were sent to do a job. You did your job,’ ” Obas said. “Even if I knew he was going to die, I wasn’t prepared for him to go.”
Not all those who came out Thursday were luminaries. Some were regular people like 87-year-old Gerard Antoine, who despite his cane, said he needed to pay his final respects.
As Antoine ambled toward the gray casket where Charlemagne, dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and green-striped tie lay surrounded by white roses and daisies, the singer’s song, Lan Male m’ Ye, (“I am in deep trouble”) played.
“People tend to recognize people when they die,” Martelly said.
A fan of Charlemagne since he was a teenager, Martelly, 56, who often sang about the country’s misery before his successful 2010 presidential bid, said he often drew inspiration from Charlemagne’s songs and guitar-based twoubadou melodies.
“You don’t hear his type of songs. Manno was unique in the way he spoke about problems in Haiti, the reality in Haiti … He talked about real stories of life, stories that could touch you, and make you, whether man or woman, cry,” Martelly said.
“He marked our time, our culture,” the former president added. “He opened a lot of young people’s minds to Haiti’s problems and on how to dream, how to think. He was a real talent.”
2
USAID Announces New Project
in Support of Safe Water and Sanitation for Haiti
For Immediate Release
The United States took another step to support access to clean water for Haiti’s citizens and continuing the fight against cholera. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Water and Sanitation project supports the goal the United States shares with the Government of Haiti to expand safe water and sanitation access to vulnerable communities, the most important battlefront in the eradication of cholera and other waterborne diseases.
The USAID Water and Sanitation project represents a $41.8 million investment aligned with the priorities of Haiti’s Ministry of Public Health and the water and sanitation directorate. It aims to improve the health of Haitians, to build on previous United States investments in Haiti and to start a longer-term, more comprehensive approach to water, sanitation, and hygiene that will strengthen local and national Haitian institutions working in this sector.
The Project is part of the U.S. Government’s Global Water Strategy vision for a water-secure world. It aims to promote sustainable access around the world to safe drinking water and sanitation services, the adoption of key hygiene behaviors, and the strengthening of water sector governance, financing, and institutions.
Haiti, is designated a high priority country under the United States’ Water for the World Act of 2014. That law, which reinforced and refined the implementation efforts of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, ensures that water, sanitation, and hygiene programming contributes to long-term, sustainable results.
This project will focus on increasing access to improved water and sanitation services in priority cholera “hotspot” communes identified in Haiti’s National Mid-Term Plan for the Elimination of Cholera, and in communes recovering from natural disasters such as Hurricane Matthew. It will also engage the private sector in creating solutions for expanding access to water and sanitation services.
The four-year project will be implemented by Development Alternatives, Inc., an international non-governmental organization, well-known for providing technical and managerial support to social and economic development programs around the world.
(End of text)
Brooklyn Chrch wants tu help victims of child slavery
Dec 10, 2017 · by Cindy Rodriguez
Haitian community leaders say it is all to common in their island nation for poor children to be sent to live with upper class families who use them as domestic servants and worse. These victims of child slavery are known as restaveks. The Courtelyou Road Church of God in East Flatbush wants to identify and help survivors now living in Brooklyn.
"After they were raised in Haiti, they come here to the United States, many of them here in this community and then they raise children without being treated for PTSD and many other things that they suffer," said Pastor Diane St. Surin during a press conference on Sunday.
Surin said she knows of at least 10 survivors who attend her church.
"I've seen them become very intimidated very quickly. They cannot advocate for themselves and they lean on the church. I'm also an attorney so they lean a lot on me," said the Pastor. "I don't see how they're surviving in this type of an environment with that trauma."
Surin said the goal is to connect survivors to mental health services in the community and to teach mental health clinicians to understand the Haitian culture so they can help in an appropriate way.
City councilman Jumanee Williams, who represents the Flatbush area where many Haitians live, said that 60 percent of restaveks in Haiti are young girls who have no rights or identity, and who are verbally and sexually abused.
"When natural disasters effect this country, like an earthquake, like a hurricane, like cholera, all these things are exacerbated," he said.
Williams said the US should not be sending people back to Haiti when child slavery continues to happen there. He was referring to the Trump administration's decision to end Temporary Protected Status for tens of thousands of Haitians living in the US. Those with TPS have been given 18 months to leave and return home.
There's no data on how many restaveks are living in Brooklyn but community leaders said their efforts would help determine that and raise awareness about the problem in the Haitian community.
"Our goal in this action is to begin to look at this data, begin to talk to this community, begin to assess...and see what can be done," said Fabiola Desmont of Restavek Freedom Foundation.
- Détails
- Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti
A Return to Haiti, and Broadway via Edmonton: The Canada Letter
By Jan Austin, Dec 15, 2017 – NYT - Many of you may know that Catherine Porter, our Toronto bureau chief, was in Haiti immediately after the 2010 earthquake and returned there several times afterward.
She has gone back to produce a moving, richly reported look at the people who bring dignity to the dead in a country where even death offers no escape from poverty.
It’s part of The End, a series of articles looking at what our deaths tell us about how we live. Those stories include Ms. Porter’s similarly in-depth reporting on assisted death in Canada that appeared earlier this year.
Ms. Porter shared some thoughts about her latest visit to Haiti:
A few weeks before I started this job as The New York Times’s Toronto bureau chief in February, I went to my second home — Haiti.
I was finishing research for a memoir I’m writing about my relationship with a Haitian girl named Lovely and her family, and I was saying goodbye.
I didn’t think I’d be back for a while. I was heavy-hearted.
My first trip to Haiti was on an aid flight, 11 days after the devastating 2010 earthquake. The first story I wrote was about a 2-year-old miracle girl who survived six days beneath the rubble. That was Lovely.
I returned to Haiti a second time, three months later, to find that Lovely wasn’t orphaned, as all the medical workers had assumed. Her parents and younger brother had survived. But they were living in a tin shed that leaked every time it rained. Her story captured readers and drew me back to Haiti repeatedly.
By the time I joined The Times, I’d been to Haiti 18 times. On one of those trips, I brought my then 6-year-old daughter Lyla with me to meet Lovely and her family. Then, in 2015, I came for the baptism of Lovely’s cousin, Lala — named after my daughter. I am her godmother.
Clearly, Haiti was no longer just a story for me.
In some ways, I feel very comfortable there. I speak enough Kreyòl to hold a conversation on the street, know my way around the capital despite few street signs, and have a fat stack of contacts and some very close friends.
In other ways, Haiti is a very uncomfortable place for me. The thing that upsets me the most is the poverty — kids who are so malnourished their hair has turned orange, people dying from simple illnesses because they can’t afford treatment, the lack of basic education because parents can’t afford the school fees.
So when my editors asked me to find a story on death from Haiti, I was thrilled for two reasons. I’d get to see Lovely and Lyla again this year — not just once, but three more times.
And I could shine a huge spotlight onto the gruesome face of Haiti’s poverty — which, ironically, makes the dead faceless — and share my heartache with Times readers.
Ms. Porter’s book about Haiti, “A Girl Named Lovely,” will be published in early 2019 by Simon & Schuster.
The Citadel Theatre in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, is giving another chance to something it last attempted more than 30 years ago: developing plays for Broadway. Our theater reporter Michael Paulson went to see its production of “Hadestown,” a musical he described as a “folk-and-politics-infused riff on an enduring Greek myth.”
So far everyone seems happy. Actors at the Citadel get to work with Broadway talent and the audience gets to see a production it otherwise couldn’t. For the producers, the value of the Canadian dollar and Edmonton’s comparative isolation from New York have both been attractions.
If you caught “Hadestown” during its run in Edmonton, I’d like to hear what you thought about the collaboration:
Students with ties to Haiti reflect on TPS program while end looms
Miami Hurricane - Emmy Petit’s story is similar to that of many other young people in South Florida. Petit was born to Haitian immigrants and raised in Miami. Her parents, like many immigrants, came to the United States looking for better opportunities than their home country could offer, such as employment and education.
More than 200,000 Haitian immigrants reside in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, accounting for the largest concentration of Haitian immigrants in the country, according to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015.
Petit has family members still in Haiti who she hopes will be able to come to the United States one day, she said. But that possibility seems bleak now.
The Trump Administration announced in late November the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians looking to leave the island. TPS is a humanitarian program that was signed into law by George H. W. Bush in 1990. The program grants temporary residency to nationals of countries affected by ongoing conflict, natural disasters or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” TPS was extended to include Haitian refugees after an earthquake devastated the island in 2010.
Approximately 60,000 Haitians have been allowed to work and live legally in the United States since 2010 and have been immune to removal under TPS, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The program is set to expire on July 22, 2019.
“The Haitians that are here, they see a possibility of creating a life,” Petit said, a graduate student in the School of Communication. “But when they think of going back, they don’t.”
Petit’s uncle and three of her cousins reside in the United States on the TPS program. The program has allowed her family members to live in the United States without fear of deportation. However, with the termination of the program for Haitians, TPS recipients must make plans to return to Haiti by July 2019. Otherwise, they will risk deportation.
A recent statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security declared that Haiti is “able to safely receive traditional levels of returned citizens.”
However, Petit said Haiti still has “a lot of work to do to create a stable environment for its citizens.” Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, with 60 percent of its population living in poverty, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.
Junior Diane Petit-Frere voiced similar concerns about the ability of Haitian refugees to return to a stable Haiti. Petit-Frere, who last visited Haiti in 2014 and still has family members there, said that the lingering effects of the 2010 earthquake are still visible on the island.
“There are still people living in tents who lost their houses; there are still roads that haven’t been constructed yet,” said Petit-Frere, a double major in political science and English.
Mirza Tanis, a junior majoring in finance from Port-Au-Prince, last returned to Haiti in 2015. For Tanis, the Trump Administration’s decision is a blow to those on the program, but also to the economy of the island nation, since so many Haitian-Americans and Haitians living in the United States were sending resources to their families on the island.
“You are taking away the ability for Haitian refugees on the TPS program to provide for their families back in Haiti, and also for them to take care of themselves,” Tanis said.
Remittances account for 29.4 percent of Haiti’s GDP, meaning that the deportation of Haitian individuals in the United States would likely strike another blow to the world’s 18th-poorest economy in terms of GDP per capita.
Even so, a common theme among the Haitian community at UM is the ability to persevere, along with the dream that one day all of their family members will be able to come to the United States legally.
“On our flag, what it says is, ‘l’union fait la force,’ which means, ‘unity creates force” Tanis said. “So at the end of the day, we still have to pick ourselves up.”
For Petit’s cousins, earning full U.S. citizenship is a dream that may never become a reality. Petit’s cousins have exhausted the legal channels to citizenship, applying for residency but spending years waiting for their applications to be processed, a wait that continues to this day. For her family members who were not born in the United States, “residency would be a dream,” Petit said.
“The majority of immigrants that I know from Haiti are hardworking,” Petit said. “They see themselves having a future here.”
December 11, 2017
Finding a sensible policy for Haitian immigrants
Published December 11. 2017 5:11PM
By The Day Editorial Board
There should be room in immigration policy for special situations, such as those confronting Haitian immigrants who have put down roots in this country and whose forced return to a struggling nation would do no one any good.
When a catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, creating a humanitarian crisis for a nation already struggling as the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, the Obama administration granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitians legally living in the United States.
The policy was both benevolent and practical. Why return these individuals, when their legal status in the United States expired, to a country struggling to deal with the devastation, deaths and disruptions caused by the disaster? The problem, of course, is that eight years later Haiti, while experiencing some recovery, remains a nation beset with momentous problems. It has seen new disasters from hurricanes and crushing poverty persists.
The U.S. has repeatedly extended the TPS designation, but now the Department of Homeland Security is taking a harder line. Pointing to the temporary nature of the rule, the DHS states that it will end in July 2019 and the Haitians must return to their homeland.
About 1,200 Haitians in Connecticut and 60,000 nationwide would face a return to the country.
Southeastern Connecticut has a special relationship with Haiti and its people, with the Catholic Diocese of Norwich and other religious and charitable groups providing relief efforts there and helping the immigrant population here.
In this region many of these immigrants have jobs, children in local schools, and some of those children were born here, making them U.S. citizens. Many of these marriages include a spouse with legal status.
One might argue that allowing these individuals to remain in the country could take jobs from American citizens, but the reality is that most are working in unskilled positions not popular with the general populace and which employers are having difficulty filling given the current low unemployment numbers.
In many instances, these workers return some of their salaries to family in Haiti.
The better approach would be to look at these cases individually. If the individual has been a contributing member of our society, has strong family support and connections and is abiding by our laws, provide him or her permanent legal status.