Now is the Time for a Focus on Things Haitian

By Jeffery Kazembe Batts
IG: @kazbatts
“Haitians are eating the pets, cats, and dogs,” he claimed while campaigning for a return to the White House, having previously declared Haiti to be a “shithole country” along with the continent of Africa. With such undeniably negative comments from the American president, many were not surprised when the Trump administration reduced the Temporary Protective Status extension to 12 months, with an expiration date of August 3, 2025.

That date has passed. Mercifully, a District Court ruling blocked his TPS termination date, extending it back to February 3, 2026. With this six-month reprieve, Haitians and all Black people, since we look alike, must prepare for what is being planned regarding people born on or descended from the first truly free republic in the Western Hemisphere. In 1804, Jean-Jaques Dessalines declared all people free in the Haitian constitution while the United States was still extending the “peculiar institution.”

The “Big Beautiful (Ugly) Bill” allocates over $165 billion to immigration and border enforcement over the next decade. This includes significant funding for border wall construction, immigration detention facilities, and increased staffing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Border czar Tom Homan threatened, “We’re going to be in New York City, and President Trump said, we’re gonna double down, triple down on sanctuary cities.

I’ve said it before, we’ll flood the zone with sanctuary cities. If they don’t let us arrest a bad guy in the county jail, they’re going to arrest them in the community, we’re going to arrest them at a work site”. Most people snatched by ICE and Homeland Security have not been “bad guys” or criminals. Adding Haiti to the list of travel ban countries is another example of Haiti being disrespected. Brooklyn is the home of “Little Haiti” and needs to prepare for Trump, Homan, and ICE running wild in the streets.

Haiti is currently engulfed with widespread gang violence in Port-Au-Prince, a collapsing public health system nationwide, and a food crisis with millions in need of assistance. The U.S. Department of State advises against all travel to Haiti. Flights to the western third of Hispaniola (Haiti) are rare. A humane American foreign policy would not deport people to a place where they are advised not to travel.

Respect is due. Savannah, Georgia, has a Haitian Monument in Franklin Square that honors the largest unit of men of African ancestry, who were recruited from Saint-Domingue, which became Haiti, and helped the future United States win the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire in1779. Nonetheless, America has never respected Haiti. Not recognizing its sovereignty for 60 years until after the American Civil War, occupying the nation from 1915 – 1934, and using willing stooges and shenanigans to undermine development for decades in sync with France.

Florida is the only place outside of the NYC area that has more people of Haitian ancestry residing. Earlier this year, from Jan. 24 to 26, the Aventura resort in Miami became a Who’s Who of national and local politics regarding Haiti.

The National Haitian American Elected Officials Network (NHAEON) hosted the largest network of Haitian American leaders at its annual summit. Florida’s Haitian leaders are being assertive in getting Haitian issues prioritized. Related to the gang takeover is the illegal trafficking of guns.

In April, Cherfilus-McCormick, the only Haitian-American in Congress, introduced the Caribbean Anti-Smuggling of Trafficked Arms Act. Recently, she and more than 30 congressional colleagues signed a letter with their recommendations to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

Cherfilus-McCormick said Haiti “has seen a staggering influx of illicit U.S.-origin weapons — primarily funneled through South Florida.” She and the other lawmakers say 90% of illegal Caribbean-bound firearms shipments originated in Florida, including through the Miami River and Port Everglades.

This is the same Everglades area where Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has built Alligator Alcatraz to confine people rounded up by ICE agents, with the funding from the Big Ugly Bill. Could it be time for the New York City Council, the Borough Presidents, the Mayor, the New York State legislature, and NYS Governor Kathy Hochul to like the Florida officials, to convene meetings that focus on what is best for Haitians living in New York State and create mechanisms to protect our fellow New Yorkers when ICE comes looking? The nation of Haiti and the Haitian people have earned the right to be respected. February 3, 2026, is fast approaching. What are we going to do?