Haitian-Americans in Florida
During the 2016 presidential campaign, both major US presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, recognized not only the importance of Florida as a must-win state, but also the growing influence of the Haitian-American community as an electoral group. Trump won Florida by 112,911 votes or 1.19 per cent. Senator Rick Scott won with 10,033 votes (0.2 per cent) in 2018. Governor DeSantis won with 32,463 votes (0.4 per cent). In contrast, the Haitian electorate represents over 300,000 voters in Florida. If only half of those voters were registered Democrats and voted, they would have changed the outcome of all three elections.
Florida voted for Trump as it has voted for every winner of the Presidential election since 2000. Then-candidate Trump recognized the importance of the state and the weight of the Haitian-American electorate, at least enough to accept an invitation of Mr. Bernard Sansaricq to speak to the Haitian community of Florida in September 2016. Mr. Sansaricq, a former senator of the senate of Haiti had invited Donald Trump to meet with Haitian-Americans to share how his future administration would tackle the Haitian-community priority issues such as economic opportunities, healthcare, education, immigration and US foreign policy toward Haiti.
Candidate Trump promised to be our greatest champion
During that ill-fated 2016 visit, Mr. Trump praised the Haitian community, which he noted was filled with people who were “dedicated to family, perseverance, entrepreneurship.” He said that the Haitian-American community “deserves America’s gratitude and respect” and that he greatly respected our community, a statement that garnered great applause.
Trump further said that he followed what was unfolding in Haiti and shared in our pain. He said that all the things that make America "good and strong” could be found in Little Haiti and this was to be a “new chapter built on mutual respect and friendship and love.” He doubled-down to say that he was running to represent Haitian-Americans and would be our community’s “greatest champion.”
Actions speak louder than words
Fast forward to less than two years later, President Trump stated that Haitian immigrants to the U.S. “all have AIDS” and referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists.” He also stated that Nigerian immigrants should “go back to their huts” and compared immigrants in general to snakes.
Although he has denied making those comments, his actions have spoken louder than any words could ever had. Indeed, in late 2017, he cancelled TPS designation for Haiti, one of his duly designated “shithole” countries as well as five others including: El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.
We should not have any doubts about President Trump’s views on immigrants, blacks and for the Haitian-American community in particular. Despite President Trump’s many promises to be our champion, under his leadership, our community has been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19 and is experiencing higher economic hardship, and increasing gentrification due both to economics and climate change.
Across the country, there is mounting fear that families will be torn apart as a result of the cancellation of TPS designation for Haitians. On the foreign policy front, his administration supports a Haitian President who is decried by its people for deteriorating into authoritarian rule.
What to expect from a 2nd term
On bread and butter issues, as well as foreign policies, as Haitian-Americans, we recognize the sharp differences between the Democrats and Republicans. Whether the issues are the economy, a living wage, healthcare, how to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, immigration and particularly TPS, education and the US foreign policy toward Haiti, one party has been inclusive and responsive while the other plays on fear as this President does. On the foreign policy front, every single overthrow of the democratic order (1988, 1991, and 2004) in the past 30 plus years has happened under Republican administrations.
As it has done over the past three plus years, a Trump administration will continue to promote white nationalism and supremacy, and fear as the centerpieces of its reelection campaign strategy. This is how President Trump hopes to get reelected and how he will govern – it will not be more of the same. It will be worse! He will foment racial division and wink at discrimination against minority communities. Additionally, he will consolidate policies that will govern our lives for the next 40 years, especially if he gets to nominate two more Supreme Court justices.
A reelection of President Trump will tear apart the fabric of what makes us all Americans.
Biden-Harris will fight for us
Although we know that it will take time to undo the harm caused by the current administration, we can start to dig ourselves out of the hole by electing VP Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris.
As the pandemic continues to take its toll on families and jobs, it has laid bare the country’s deep and structural inequalities. If elected, President Biden will immediately work on a recovery package that provides funds to states and much needed support to working families. He will invest in small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy and support raising the federal minimum wage to $15 so working families can live dignified lives.
President Biden will reinforce the Affordable Care Act and introduce a new Medicare-like public option. This will ensure that no family has to turn to bankruptcy because of medical bills. He will rescind President Trump’s executive orders, which has affected thousands of Haitians and other immigrants and scrap the wealth test the Trump administration has proposed for prospective immigrants. A Biden administration will not separate families and put children in cages. He will forgive student debt for low-income and middle-class people who have attended public colleges and universities. He has made racial inclusivity an important pillar of his campaign and has demonstrated his commitment to racial equality by choosing Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate and nominating a number of African-Americans and Haitian-Americans to key posts in his campaign.
Above all, a Biden-Harris administration will bring honesty back to the White House and offer a vision to America that is aligned with our core values. As President Abraham Lincoln did, the Biden-Harris team will work to restore “our bonds of affection” and help us reconnect with the “better angels of our nature.”
We will stand for decency
We all know the role that the state of Florida will play again in the November election and must be under no illusion about Trump’s backing from supporters, including some Haitian-Americans, who do not have our interests at heart. Indeed, despite the Trump administration’s blatant racism and xenophobia, the Miami Herald recently published an article in which it reported on “an organized caravan of cars was blasting horns, waving flags and shouting through megaphones letting the world know about their support for President Donald Trump.”
In 2016, the Haitian community got played by a charlatan who promised to be our champion but became our community’s worst nightmare. This time, we must show that we learned from that mistake. Indeed, even Mr. Sansaricq, a staunch Republican and Trump supporter, has publicly distanced himself from the President.
Our community will not be played the fool again and we will not vote against our own interests. While there are many important issues at stake in this election cycle, the most important ones are human decency and civility. The question is whether we will vote for division or unity, will we stand for hate or love, will we go in the voting booth and select white nationalism and separatism over unity. We must ask ourselves whether we will raise our collective voice and use our votes to, once again, stand on the right side of history as we have done may times throughout America’s history.
Our modern-day "Vertières"
As Haitians, we launched the only successful slave-led revolution, which resulted in the first free black Republic. This desire for freedom was also present when a group of infantry volunteers from Saint Domingue called “Chasseurs Volontaires” fought valiantly alongside American troops in the 1779 Battle of Savannah against the British. A little over two decades later, some of those Haitians soldiers who fought in Savannah went on to fight for freedom and human dignity, and against slavery in Haiti. That war was so costly for the French that it forced Napoleon to sell its Louisiana and the Midwest territories, which doubled the size of the United States.
Our community can once again stand against tyranny and fight for freedom and human dignity. Though sadly this time, our stand will be against a President whom we mistakenly helped to elect to office. Haitian-Americans must stand shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers from the Caribbean and Central-America to say no to tyranny. Together, we have the numbers to make the difference!
As the Haitian motto appropriately reminds us: Inite se fòs / L'Union fait la force ("Unity Makes Strength"). Si se puede!
