President Trump’s new journey ban has sparked widespread outrage and concern in New York’s sprawling Haitian group, by far the most important native diaspora group impacted by the edict geared toward 12 nations.
Pastors, shopkeepers and group leaders apprehensive out loud that their group would search to remain out of sight to keep away from any contact with authorities for concern of being arrested or presumably deported.
“We did nothing wrong,” stated Rev. Wesley Joseph, 55, of the Jerusalem Church of Christ in Brooklyn, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Haiti 20 years in the past. “We work for America. We help America … You have doctors, you have lawyers. We contribute to the economy.”
Waving at a sparse lunchtime crowd, Jolly Fleury, 62, stated enterprise has fallen off at his J & C Haitian Restaurant and Bakery on Clarendon Highway since Trump launched his newest anti-immigrant crackdown.
“Customers [are] scared. ICE hasn’t come over here yet. But some other restaurants I know, they come,” stated Fleury, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. “A lot of people are worried. That’s the reason I don’t make enough money.”
Stephanie D. Delia, an immigration lawyer and government director of the Little Haiti BK advocacy group, stated the upcoming ban is hurting Haitian-owned small companies just like the small groceries alongside bustling Flatbush Ave. promoting stacks of ripe mangoes, ginger root and cassava.
“There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of confusion,” Delia stated.
President Donald Trump. (AP Picture/Alex Brandon)
Trump final week stated residents of Haiti and 11 different international locations could be banned from even visiting america except they already possess visas or everlasting residency, a pointy blow to the Haitian group that numbers lots of of hundreds within the New York metro space, particularly in central Brooklyn and southern Queens.
Haitian leaders and Democratic lawmakers lashed out at Trump for the transfer, which they stated was motivated by racism and hatred of immigrants.
Clarke ticked off a laundry checklist of quick issues New York Haitian households and companies would face when the ban goes into impact as quickly as Monday.
“It could be grandma coming for life-saving medical treatment or a niece or nephew coming for a wedding or going for a funeral,” she stated. “It’s all the things that we as families do. It’s unjust, and for what?”
Jolly Fleury, the proprietor of J & C Haitian Restaurant and Bakery, factors to an empty restaurant throughout what needs to be the mid-day rush on Friday, June 6, 2025. He stated enterprise has been dangerous ever since ICE started rounding up immigrants earlier this yr. (Colin Mixson / New York Each day Information)
She stated an earlier Trump order revoking Short-term Protecting Standing for Haitians turned the Little Haiti neighborhood in Flatbush right into a “ghost town” as authorized and undocumented immigrants alike lay low.
“People are not sending their kids to school, not going to places where immigrants gather or congregate,” Andre stated. “They’re afraid it’s going to be: Round up first and ask questions later.”
Haiti averted being included in a chaotic journey ban imposed throughout Trump’s first time period. It isn’t on the federal government’s terror watch checklist, Clarke famous.
The White Home says Haiti was included within the new ban as punishment for prime charges of overstaying authorized visas and and huge numbers of Haitian nationals who come to the U.S. illegally.
Haitian New Yorkers are pictured outdoors the Trump Constructing in decrease Manhattan after President Trump’s destructive feedback about Haiti on Jan. 19, 2018. (Jefferson Siegel / New York Each day Information)
Haitians on the island face persistent poverty, political instability and gang violence, with armed males controlling no less than 85% of the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The ban takes impact Monday at 12:01 a.m., a lag that will assist keep away from the worst of the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when an analogous measure took impact with nearly no discover in 2017.
Official estimates say near 500,000 individuals of Haitian descent reside within the New York metro space, and the 2010 census counted about 200,000 in New York Metropolis alone.
Haitian New Yorkers outdoors the Trump Constructing in decrease Manhattan in 2018. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Each day Information)
Trump tied the brand new ban to Sunday’s anti-Israel terror assault in Boulder, Colorado. He says the assault underscores the hazards posed by some guests who overstay visas, although the suspect within the assault is from Egypt, a rustic that isn’t on Trump’s restricted checklist.
Some, however not all, 12 international locations had been included in an analogous ban in Trump’s first time period. The brand new ban consists of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. A number of different international locations will face new heightened restrictions together with Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Together with Haiti within the journey ban is just the most recent assault on the group by Trump.
In his first time period, Trump derided immigrants from “s—hole countries” together with Haiti, the poorest nation within the Western Hemisphere. Through the presidential marketing campaign, he repeated false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio had been consuming neighbors’ pets.
His administration has moved to finish a federal program that gave permission to briefly reside and work in america to 532,000 individuals from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The Supreme Court docket final week accepted the transfer, clearing the best way for these immigrants to probably be deported.
