By Nana Gyamfi
The U.S. has a protracted, ugly historical past of focusing on Haitian immigrants with unfair and harsh insurance policies. And the reality is, it’s rooted in anti-Blackness and a worry of Black liberation. Haiti’s existence as the primary free Black republic has been handled as a menace to a area constructed on enslaving and oppressing Black individuals. And America’s immigration insurance policies have mirrored that worry—punishing Haitians for merely in search of freedom and security.
From the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, when the U.S. locked up greater than 30,000 Haitian asylum seekers at Guantanamo Bay, to newer insurance policies like Title 42 that compelled them out on the U.S.-Mexico border, Haitians have all the time been singled out and criminalized. In the meantime, different individuals fleeing related circumstances have been handled with extra compassion and given an actual likelihood to construct higher lives.
Now, the U.S. is taking one other swipe at Haitians by gutting Momentary Protected Standing (TPS)—one of many previous couple of protections they’ve left. On Feb. 20, 2025, the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) reduce Haiti’s TPS, setting it to run out on Aug. 3, 2025. And it’s not simply bureaucratic nonsense—this can be a calculated transfer to criminalize and deport practically 500,000 Haitian migrants. By August, they may very well be prone to detention, deportation and being torn away from their households.
That is nothing new. The U.S. has been attacking Black asylum seekers for many years, and Haitians have been a main goal. When giant numbers of Haitians sought asylum within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties, it triggered a racist backlash that led to harsh insurance policies which might be nonetheless used at the moment. These years set the stage for dangerous laws just like the 1994 Crime Invoice and the 1996 Unlawful Immigration Reform and Immigrant Duty Act (IIRIRA), which institutionalized the detention and deportation programs we see at the moment.
Only in the near past, Trump introduced plans to fill Guantanamo Bay to capability, aiming to detain at the very least 30,000 migrants there. Guantanamo is notorious for torturing and imprisoning individuals with out due course of. And it’s been used to detain Black migrants—particularly Haitians—earlier than. They’ve confronted horrific abuse there, from solitary confinement to sexual violence throughout so-called “examinations” and being denied entry to attorneys and members of the family.
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It’s clear the U.S. has by no means been severe about honoring its asylum legal guidelines in the case of Black migrants. And it’s not only a Trump downside. The Biden administration doubled down on Trump-era Title 42 insurance policies, which led to mass deportations and a humanitarian disaster at Del Rio, Texas.
The most recent assault on Haiti’s TPS is simply one other chapter in America’s long-standing try and criminalize and deport Black migrants. Whereas different refugees—like Ukrainians—are given compassion and assist, Haitians are advised they’re not welcome.
This has to cease. Black migrants deserve security, stability, and the correct to reside with out the fixed menace of deportation. The Black Alliance for Simply Immigration (BAJI) is right here to maintain combating for insurance policies that enable immigrant households to construct actual, dignified lives—free from worry and state-sanctioned violence.
