Trump blasted over decision to repatriate 59,000 Haitians
WEST PALM BEACH, US: President Donald Trump faced a backlash Tuesday over his tough immigration policies after announcing that 59,000 Haitians who took refuge in the US following the 2010 earthquake must return home.
Lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle blasted the decision to repatriate the Haitians within 18 months, removing the Temporary Protected Status ( TPS) they received after the disaster, which killed more than 200,000 people and destroyed much of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.
Hundreds of protesters rallied near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in West Palm Beach, Florida — where the president was spending the Thanksgiving holiday — to voice their discontent over the move.
“We are fighting and we are going to continue to fight for permanent residency,” said 38year- old Myrtha Abraham, a Haitian hotel worker with TPS — and a seven-year- old daughter who is an American citizen.
“We have family, we have children, we have houses, we have jobs here.”
For Wendi Walsh of Unite Here, a labour group helping organise the demonstration in Florida, “the announcement to end TPS is mean- spirited two days before Thanksgiving.”
Haitians and their supporters also demonstrated in New York, warning that the decision would lead to breaking up families. Thousands of children have been born in the US to people under TPS protections.
In Port-au-Prince, officials said they were grateful for the 18month grace period, but residents voiced concern about the longterm repercussions.
“We knew this programme was only temporary,” said Haiti’s ambassador to the US, Paul Altidor.
The US decision announced late Monday by the Department of Homeland Security was expected. But critics said impoverished Haiti is not prepared for an influx of returnees.
“Haiti is not ready,” said Marleine Bastien, director of Haitian Women of Miami.
“It still has people displaced from the earthquake and from Hurricane Matthew. Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused even more damage, the cholera epidemic left 1.2 million people contaminated, there is no access to clean water infrastructure yet,” she told AFP.
“You look at the conditions on the ground, and Haiti is a textbook on TPS continuation.” — AFP