President Trump is kicking out about 350,000 Haitian immigrants who have lived here for many years, raising their children, paying their taxes and contributing to their communities.
His actions are both morally indefensible and economically stupid. Even Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a conservative Republican, told PBS: “The policy is wrong.”
In 1990, Congress created a program called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. It provides a safe haven for refugees fleeing natural disasters or political upheavals in their home countries, and since a massive earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010, migrants from that country have been allowed to live and work here.
It’s true, as the administration argues, that the program was designed to be “temporary,” and that’s why the Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 last June to allow Trump to target Haitians for deportation. The cancellation of their protected status took effect this week.
But practical reality is a more powerful and persuasive argument than abstract legality, and the reality is this: The nation needs these Haitian immigrants. As a New York Times headline reported: “Employers Fear Labor Shortage as Many Immigrants Lose Protected Status.”
“Ending TPS doesn’t save American money,” Commissioner Marleine Bastien of Miami-Dade County told a news conference. “Ending TPS costs America money.”
Trump, however, is not motivated by fiscal facts, let alone morality. He has long exploited nativist fears, especially of non-whites from what he derides as “s—hole” countries like Haiti. And now, with war raging and prices rising, demonizing foreigners is one of the few ways he has left to energize his supporters for the midterm elections less than 100 days away.
The administration’s case for ending TPS is based on three lies, and the first is that it is safe for Haitians to return home. The country is so dangerous that Trump’s own State Department warns travelers to avoid it and major U.S. airlines have suspended flights there.
DeWine, who knows the country well, says, “To say it’s safe to go to Haiti is absurd.” In fact, he tells Amna Nawaz of PBS, “It is worse today in Haiti than it’s ever been.”
“Haiti is indeed near total state collapse,” Russel Honore, a retired general who specializes in disaster relief, wrote in The New York Times. “Armed gangs have come to dominate an estimated 80% to 90% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and large areas of the country, controlling access to commerce and humanitarian aid, paralyzing basic government operations and displacing more than a million people.”
The second lie is that immigrants take jobs away from Americans, an old myth that every economic study refutes. DeWine cites the Ohio town of Springfield, where about 15,000 Haitians have settled.
Trump falsely claimed during the campaign that those Haitians were eating local pets. In fact, says the governor, they are model citizens who have helped revitalize the city.
“You’re seeing in Springfield a city that is coming back,” DeWine said on PBS. “And, frankly, one of the reasons it’s come back is because of the Haitians who have been there to fill jobs that were simply not being filled at all.”
In fact, adds the governor, there’s “a multiplier effect.” The economic activity generated by the Haitians helps create jobs for other local residents. Sending the settlers home, DeWine insists, “is a job killer for Ohio. … It’s not good for our state.”
The third lie is that deporting Haitians can be done humanely, without dividing families. These migrants have an estimated 50,000 children who are United States citizens. Many of them have never even been to Haiti, and their parents face a terrible choice: take their children to a deeply dangerous place or separate the family, possibly for years.
In San Diego, NPR interviewed a Haitian named Josiane Valsaint, who has lived and worked legally in the U.S. since 2010 and now faces deportation. “The question,” reports NPR, “that sends tears streaming down Valsaint’s face is: If that happens, what will happen to her 10- and 12-year-old children, born in San Diego, who attend public school here?”
“Who’s going to take care of my kiddos?” cried Valsaint. “They’re not adults yet. They were born here.”
The Haitians are not alone; Trump wants to cancel TPS protections for more than 1 million refugees from 16 other countries, and about 200,000 Salvadorans could be next on his hit list.
In his increasingly desperate search for an issue that excites his base, Trump is backing a poisonous policy that will harm all Americans — including his own supporters.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com.