Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Haitians in the U.S. brace for deportation as Trump ends protected status
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hundreds of thousands of Haitians living and working in the
- 0:03Speaker 1: United States are wondering when they'll be the next targets
- 0:06Speaker 1: by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE. Special
- 0:10Speaker 1: protections allowing Haitians to stay are set to expire in
- 0:14Speaker 1: the coming days. They were asked by the Trump administration,
- 0:17Speaker 1: and his decision was upheld by the Supreme Court last month.
- 0:21Speaker 1: The CBC's Mike Krawalley has more details from Washington. So
- 0:24Speaker 1: Mike walk us through what the Trump administration is doing
- 0:27Speaker 1: and why.
- 0:28Speaker 2: Yeah, Andrew, the Trump administration has set this target of
- 0:31Speaker 2: deporting one million people per year, and although the White
- 0:34Speaker 2: House insists it's really focused on deporting criminals, there simply
- 0:39Speaker 2: aren't that many people who are illegally in the country
- 0:41Speaker 2: who've committed crime. So the administration is doing now terminating
- 0:47Speaker 2: what's called Temporary Protected Status. This is a designation that's
- 0:51Speaker 2: let Haitians live and work in the US since twenty ten,
- 0:55Speaker 2: and what it means is around three hundred thousand Haitians.
- 0:58Speaker 2: They're losing their permission to stay here in the US.
- 1:01Speaker 2: Their work permits are set to expire tomorrow. The deportations
- 1:05Speaker 2: could start as early as Monday, because that's when the
- 1:08Speaker 2: US Supreme Court ruling that you mentioned takes effect. So
- 1:11Speaker 2: this is all happening even though the safety situation in
- 1:15Speaker 2: Haiti has not really improved for years. You've got criminal
- 1:19Speaker 2: gangs that control ninety percent of the capital and a
- 1:23Speaker 2: lot of the surrounding countryside. They target ordinary Haitians for
- 1:27Speaker 2: kidnapping and murder, and the US State Department says Haiti's
- 1:32Speaker 2: not safe for Americans to even visit.
- 1:37Speaker 1: And you went to Springfield, Ohio, a town with a
- 1:40Speaker 1: strong Haitian community made famous by Trump. What are you
- 1:44Speaker 1: hearing from Haitians there about how they're preparing.
- 1:47Speaker 2: Yeah, so there's a lot of fear about what comes
- 1:50Speaker 2: next and they're really trying to figure out what to do.
- 1:53Speaker 2: What you mentioned about Trump making Springfield's Haitians famous, Yeah,
- 1:59Speaker 2: they thrust into the national spotlight a couple of years
- 2:02Speaker 2: ago when Trump claimed during a presidential debate that they
- 2:07Speaker 2: were eating dogs and cats. There was no evidence this
- 2:10Speaker 2: was true, but it did some pretty serious damage to
- 2:13Speaker 2: the community's reputation. And the key thing here, Andrew, is
- 2:16Speaker 2: it's got them feeling particularly vulnerable to these potential immigration rates.
- 2:22Speaker 2: They're feeling like there'd be a real target on their
- 2:24Speaker 2: back when the deportations start. Now, Haitians make up about
- 2:29Speaker 2: a quarter of the population of Springfield, and pretty much
- 2:33Speaker 2: all of those folks a whole temporary protected status. And
- 2:37Speaker 2: one of them who I spoke with is a guy
- 2:39Speaker 2: named Villez Dorsanville. He runs a support center for Haitians,
- 2:43Speaker 2: and he says some of them are considering trying to
- 2:46Speaker 2: escape to Canada, but he also told me he's warning
- 2:49Speaker 2: them against that for the risk that they could be
- 2:51Speaker 2: turned back at the border and into the hands of
- 2:54Speaker 2: US immigration officials. And yet at the same time, they've
- 2:57Speaker 2: got this fear of what would happen if they don't
- 3:01Speaker 2: try to flee the US and they get deported to
- 3:04Speaker 2: Haiti instead. Take a listen.
- 3:06Speaker 3: I know so many of them left Haiti because of
- 3:09Speaker 3: because they were in Dingger, because of political reason, because
- 3:14Speaker 3: of all type of maybe.
- 3:19Speaker 2: Threats now Villa Starsentville also told me that some Haitians
- 3:24Speaker 2: in Springfield have already lost their jobs. Employers laid them
- 3:28Speaker 2: off in anticipation of that of their work permits expiring tomorrow.
- 3:34Speaker 1: And how are other non Haitians reacting ahead of the
- 3:37Speaker 1: expiry of the temporary protections.
- 3:40Speaker 2: Yeah, so I suppoke to some faith leaders as the
- 3:43Speaker 2: religious community in Springfield as a lot of the folks
- 3:47Speaker 2: who are supporting the Haitians there. Carl Ruby, he's the
- 3:52Speaker 2: senior pastor of Springfield Central Christian Church. He said that look,
- 3:56Speaker 2: Trump deserves some credit for being more serious than previous
- 4:01Speaker 2: presidents about deporting people who are violent criminals, but he
- 4:04Speaker 2: says the vast majority of Americans don't want to see
- 4:07Speaker 2: immigration enforcement that goes beyond that right. They don't want
- 4:11Speaker 2: people who've become their friends and their neighbors and their
- 4:14Speaker 2: fellow church goers to get arrested and deported. Take a listen.
- 4:19Speaker 4: Not only are we concerned about what could happen to
- 4:23Speaker 4: our Haitian friends, it's also a huge loss for Springfield,
- 4:27Speaker 4: and I'm you know, I'm grieving what this means to
- 4:31Speaker 4: Haitians will become my dear friends and who are members
- 4:34Speaker 4: of my church. But I'm also grieving for our city.
- 4:39Speaker 2: Passor. Ruby also told me that he and other faith
- 4:41Speaker 2: leaders in Springfield have been actually training for what they
- 4:45Speaker 2: would do if the ice raids begin. He said people
- 4:49Speaker 2: are committed to peacefully resisting, placing themselves actually in the
- 4:54Speaker 2: way of the ICE agents that they believe that they're
- 4:57Speaker 2: trying to detain somebody who would be in serious danger
- 5:01Speaker 2: if they're deported to Haiti.
- 5:03Speaker 1: My thank you. That is the CBC's Mike Crawley, live
- 5:05Speaker 1: in Washington,