On day of mourning, Haitians demand apology from Trump
Eighth anniversary of quake that killed 200,000 on island.
Haitian-Americans across the United States were preparing for a day of mourning when word leaked Thursday that President Donald Trump had deployed an expletive to refer to Haiti and African nations during immigration talks.
Friday is the eighth anniversary of a massive earthquake that shattered the Caribbean island and killed an estimated 200,000 people, triggering an outpouring of donations and volunteer efforts from Americans on behalf of their impoverished neighbor and prompting the U.S. government to offer undocumented Haitian migrants temporary protected status.
In Haiti and across the United States, religious services, a moment of silence and candlelight vigils are planned. Haitians are among this country’s major immigrant groups, with significant numbers in Florida, New York and Massachusetts.
The Washington Post reported that Trump had grown frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the White House when they discussed including immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries in a bipartisan deal over young undocumented immigrants known as “dreamers” who were brought to the United States as children. The Trump administration announced in November that it would revoke protected status from nearly 60,000 Haitians by mid-2019, following a determination by the Department of Homeland security that the “extraordinary conditions” justifying sanctuary after the earthquake no longer exist.
“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Trump said, according to people who were at the meeting.
Trump denied the remarks in a series of tweets Friday morning, but Haitian Americans and others demanded that the president apologize.
U.S. Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, the only Haitian-American in Congress, tweeted Thursday that “this behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation.” In Brockton, Massachusetts, Jean Bradley Derenoncourt, a newly sworn in city council member who fled the earthquake in 2010, called the remarks a “disgrace.”
“The president should be ashamed of himself,” Derenoncourt said, adding that Trump should also apologize to people from African nations. “My blood is boiling right now.”
Massachusetts state Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry called the president’s words racist and “an affront to decency and to history.”
Alix Desulme, one of two Haitian American city council members in North Miami, which also has a Haitian American mayor, said it was “disheartening that someone who is the leader of the free world would use such demeaning language to talk about other folks, referring to folks of color.”
The United States is home to over 630,000 Haitian immigrants, not counting their U.S. born children. About 50 Haitian Americans are elected officials nationwide. Haitian Americans interviewed about the president’s remarks said the comments diminish their roots, their families’ sacrifices and their accomplishments in this country.
To Haitians, Trump’s remarks were all the more perplexing because the president actively courted Haitians on the campaign trail, visiting Little Haiti in Miami and attempting to seize on their frustration with the pace of rebuilding after the earthquake, and the Bill and Hillary Clinton’s family foundation’s involvement in that effort.