Support for Haitian Families: A Statement of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration

8/3/2019 Support for Haitian Families: A Statement of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration

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Show Your Support forHaitian Families: A Statementof the Black Alliance for JustImmigration

Two years after the earthquake

that devastated the Haitian capital of

Port-au-Prince, over a million

displaced people still live in tent

camps, substantive reconstruction

has yet to begin, and a cholera

epidemic threatens the health andwellbeing of people in Haiti.

The Black Alliance for Just

Immigration (BAJI) is calling upon

Bay Area government bodies to

support the people of Haiti by

adopting resolutions urging the

Obama Administration to create a

Haitian Family Reunification Parole

Program to save lives and to help

Haiti recover. We are calling on Bay

Area residents to sign petitions in

support of the resolutions.

Prior to the earthquake, the

Department of Homeland Security

(DHS) had approved the immigrant

visa petitions of 105,000 Haitians

who must wait years longer in Haiti

due to the visa backlog. All will

eventually join their families here; it

makes more sense for them to do so

immediately.

BAJI and groups across the U.S.

are calling upon DHS to create a

Haitian Family Reunification Parole

Program like the still-ongoing

Cuban Family Reunification Parole

Program it created in 2007 or

otherwise immediately grant visas to

the 105,000 Haitians already

approved to give parity and permit

their consequent remittances to help

an estimated 550,000 relatives back

home.

This would reunite families,

facilitate orderly migration, save

lives at sea, and speed crucially

needed recovery funds to hundreds

of thousands in need. Another

19,000 additional still-pending

petitions should be expeditiouslyapproved.

Among those whose immigration

petitions have been approved are

Haitian spouses and minor children

of U.S. permanent residents, adult

children of U.S. citizens and

permanent residents, and married

children and spouses, and their

families. In some cases, these

family members could be waiting for

up to 11 years to enter the U.S.

Haitian family members of U.S.

citizens remain at serious risk when

they could be in the United States

working productively for both our

economy and Haitis. Thus BAJI is

supporting the call for the Obama

Administration to reunify U.S.citizens and their Haitian family

members immediately.

Heres what you can do:

1) Sign the BAJI petitions calling on

the Oakland City Council, the

Berkeley City Council or the

Alameda County Board of

Supervisors to adopt resolutions

urging the Obama Administration to

create a Haitian Family

Reunification Parole Program. Get

your friends, family members, co-

workers and colleagues to do the

same.

2) Join the BAJI email listserv and

respond to action alerts when the

resolutions come up for a vote.

3) Show your solidarity by making a

contribution to the Haiti Emergency

Relief Fund. You support goes

directly to people and grassroots

organizations on the ground that are

rebuilding Haiti. For more

information, visit their website atwww.haitiemergencyrelief.org or

contact them at

[email protected] or (510)

595-4650.

Haitian families need and deserve

our support. Please be a part of

helping them to survive and thrive.

Thank you.

BAJI and groups across the U.S. are calling

upon DHS to create a Haitian Family

Reunification Parole Program.


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The BAJI Bulletin is published bythe Black Alliance for Just Immi-

gration which was founded in April2006 to engage African Americans

and other communities in a dia-logue that leads to actions that

challenge U.S. immigration policyand the underlying issues of race,

racism and economic inequity thatframe it.

BAJI is an education and advo-cacy group comprised of AfricanAmericans and black immigrants

from Africa, Latin America and theCaribbean. BAJI provides a pro-gressive analysis and framework

on immigration that links the inter-ests of African Americans with

those of immigrants of color.

BAJIs analysis emphasizes theimpact of racism and economic

globalization on African Americanand immigrant communities as abasis for forging alliances across

these communities.

BAJI Staff:Gerald Lenoir, Executive Director

[email protected]

Phil Huchings, Senior [email protected]

Opal Tometi, National [email protected]

Aja Minor, Program Associateaja@@blackalliance.org

Layout Design By:Frontline Multimedia

Jamana Lenoir, [email protected]

www.frontline-multimedia.com

Thanks to the Haiti Action Commit-tee, the Haiti Emergency Relief

Fund, and to the authors of the ar-ticles contained in this newsletter.

Black Alliance for Just Immigration1212 Broadway, Suite 842

Oakland, CA 94612(510) 663-2254 (office)

(510) 663-2257 (fax)www.blackalliance.org

facebook.com/BAJIpagetwitter.com/bajitweet

blackallianceblog.blogspot.com

and a belief in their intelligence,their wisdom and the justice of theirdemands. His return challenges theracist notion that the poor of Haitican only look to the U.S., the UNand the NGOs for relief and devel-opment. This is why he is loved andthis is why he is feared.

Aristide has made clear that his

focus will be education. Haitis edu-cation system has always enforcedthe system of social apartheid completely eliminating the poorwhile building up a small elite. Dur-ing the Lavalas administrations,more schools were built in Haiti thanin its entire history. Adult literacy

programs often led by women re-duced the illiteracy rate. When theAristide Foundations University(UniFA) opened a Medical School in2001, it recruited students from the

poorest communities throughoutHaiti, each of whom committed toreturn to their communities upongraduation. These were revolution-ary initiatives in a country whoseelite despise the poor and haveworked for generations to keep themaway from any form of literacy orhigher education. It was no accidentthat U.S. and UN forces drove stu-dents out of the campus after the2004 coup and turned the buildinginto a military barracks.

Even with limited resources,Aristides return will generate theimpetus to reopen the medicalschool. The Aristide Foundationscontinuing work among youth aYouth League has begun, with over1000 young people meeting at theFoundation a few months ago re-flects a growing mobilizing of a newgeneration of activists, whose dy-namism will be needed in this next

phase of Haitis development. And

given a little time - the thousands ofdedicated grass roots organizers,whose work has never ceased in allthese years of repression and occu-

pation, will surely regroup and maketheir demands heard.

The task is daunting. Aristide re-turns to a colonized country. BillClinton has set up an Interim Recov-ery Commission that is now sittingon over $10 billion. U.S. AID is

pouring money into U.S.-based

HAITI: THE NEXTROUND

by Robert Roth

On March 18th, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family re-turned home from a 7-year forcedexile in South Africa an exile

brought about by the violent U.S.-or-

chestrated coup in 2004. Up until thelast minute, the U.S. governmenttried to stop the return, with Presi-dent Obama going so far as to placea last-minute call to President Zumaof South Africa.

In a speech at Toussaint Louver-ture airport in Port-au-Prince, Aris-tide commented on the undemocraticelections then taking place in Haiti.He stressed the need for including allHaitians in the political process ofthe country, including his party,Fanmi Lavalas, the most popular inthe country.

"The problem is exclusion.The solution is inclusion. Exclusionof Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion ofthe majority. And the exclusion ofthe majority is like cutting off thevery branch we are all sitting on.Every Haitian without exception, be-cause every person is a human being,so the vote of every person counts."

Thousands of Haitis poor fol-

lowed his car as it moved from theairport, through the streets of Port-au-Prince, and towards his house.Then a roar erupted and thousands of

people climbed over walls, rushedpast security and engulfed the court-yard. They were exuberant, singingand chanting for hours: "Welcome

back Titid. Welcome back schools.Welcome back hope." "Lavalas We

bend but do not break."It was a beautiful moment, made

possible by years of sacrifice and ef-

fort by Haitis grassroots movement,aided by a determined internationalsolidarity campaign. For those whohad doubted that Aristides returnwas possible and there were many,

both within and outside of Haiti itshowed, once again, the power of the

people.Aristides return demonstrates

Haitis independent will and self-de-termination. He brings back a deep,abiding respect for the poor of Haiti


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NGOs that pay more for staff thanthey do for projects. Constructioncompanies are lining up to bid forearthquake rubble removal contracts.Cholera brought to Haiti by UNforces from Nepal has spreadthroughout the country, with recentreports citing 800,000 cases. A seem-ingly permanent foreign MINUS-

TAH occupation patrols the streets,with their blue helmets and pointedguns.

As if to rub salt into the wounds,there is the new president, MichelMartelly. A kompa singer and long-time proponent of [former Haitiandictator] Jean-Claude Duvalier.Martelly worked with the dreadedFRAPH death squads that killed over

5,000 people in Haiti after the firstcoup against Aristide in 1991. Hehas made the reestablishment ofHaitis hated military a priority ofhis administration. In the past, he hascalled for a ban on "all strikes anddemonstrations." In a revolting videoreleased right before the election,Martelly called Lavalas members"faggots" and threatened sexual vio-lence against Aristide. Some of his

chief aides had warned that "thecountry would burn" if he were notselected.

In the end, Martelly was selectedby only 17% of eligible Haitian vot-ers. With Fanmi Lavalas excluded,and two right-wing candidates run-ning, the vast majority of Haitiansstayed away, refusing to lend credi-

bility to the charade. The percentageof voters who turned out was thesmallest in 60 years for any presi-dential election in the Americas.

Right after his election, Martellyobediently traveled to Washington,where he met with Secretary of StateHillary Clinton, who declared thatthe United States was with him, "allthe way." He then made the roundswith officials of the World Bank, theInter-American Development Bank,and the chair of the InternationalMonetary Fund chair, DominiqueStrauss-Kahn (later arrested for at-tempted rape in New York). After the

discussion with Strauss-Kahn,Martelly beamed and announcedthat, "the meeting had gone well."(2) Of course it did. The vultures arehovering over Haiti.

Consider the recent deal brokeredby Secretary of State Hillary Clintonwith South Korean garment giant,Sae-A Trading Company, which will

soon become Haitis largest privateemployer. Sae-A is building a 617-acre "free trade zone" near the north-ern city of Cap-Haitien. It plans toemploy 20,000 workers and paythem only 2/3 of Haitis minimumwage. U.S. AID is contributing $124million, the Inter-American Devel-opment Bank $100 million, and Sae-A will put in $78 million. The

planned industrial park will supplyWal-Mart, Target, Kohls and othermajor U.S.-based retailers. Whenconfronted with questions over thedeal including whether the newfactories will be sweatshops Hillary Clinton dismissed all con-cerns, declaring, "Haiti is now openfor business."

The Sae-A project is just one partof the structural adjustment plan now

being consolidated in Haiti. Knownas the "death plan" in Haiti, it in-volves privatization, new contractsfor elite import-export barons, andcontinued limits on social invest-ment all combined with targetedrepression of grassroots organiza-tions. In one particularly frankanalysis, UN economic advisor PaulCollier highlighted the new possibil-ities for investment in Haiti: "Due toits poverty and relatively unregu-lated labor market, Haiti has labor

costs that are fully competitive withChina, which is the global bench-mark."

Taking note, Coca-Cola has ex-panded its Haiti operations, throughits "Hope for Haiti" mango drink.Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines,which didnt even have the decencyto postpone its post-earthquake Haititours, has received funding fromU.S. AID to multiply its tourist oper-ations in northern Haiti, training

Haitians to be "hospitality workers."And energy companies are lining upto grab contracts to dig up the coun-try in order to exploit Haitis vast

mineral wealth.Yet, despite decades of repression,the popular movement in Haiti re-mains active and alive. Womens or-ganizers are right now supportingmarket women through low-interestmicro-credit programs. Humanrights workers continue to demandthe release of political prisoners andexpose the horrific conditions withinHaitis prisons. Progressive radiostations have taken great risk to de-nounce Martelly and the sham elec-

tions. The popular church (ti legliz)continues its work among peasantsthroughout the countryside. Young

people have flocked to the Founda-tion by the thousands for educationand training. And the reopening ofthe medical school is on the horizon

All of this demands internationalsolidarity. As we take a breath andcelebrate Aristides hard-fought forreturn, we know that the work con-tinues. Hopefully, we are all readyfor this next round.

Robert Roth is a co-founder ofHaiti Action Committee and a boardmember of the Haiti Emergency Re-lief Fund. He was in Haiti for President Aristides return.

www.haitisolidarity.net and onFacebook

Despite decades of repression, the popular

movement in Haiti remains active and alive.


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Black Alliance for Just Immigration

1212 Broadway, Suite 842Oakland, CA 94612

StampHere

Reflections Following A

Delegation: How

MINUSTAH Hurts Haiti

by Becca Polk, from Haiti Liberte

During the first week in October, I

took part in a human rights

delegation to Haiti led by the U.S.grassroots organization, School of

the Americas (SOA) Watch. The

delegation of 17 activists from

around the U.S. wanted to gain

firsthand knowledge about the UN

Stabilization Mission in Haiti

(MINUSTAH), a military occupation

force of 13,000 troops and police.

We also saw numerous initiatives

being organized by Haitians to

promote their nations dignity and

sovereignty.

SOA Watch monitors and protests

the activities of the U.S. Armys

School of the Americas (SOA),

based at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where

the officers of repressive Latin

American military and police forces,

including Haitis, are trained. (In

January 2001, the school was

renamed the Western Hemisphere

Institute for Security Cooperation.) I

work in the Washington, DC office

of SOA Watch, which carries out its

work through vigils and fasts,

demonstrations and nonviolent

protest, as well as media and

legislative work.

The conversations and encounters

that I had on this delegation to Haiti

have inspired me and touched my

heart, changing my perspective on

the world. While I do not represent

the whole delegation or even SOA

Watch, I would like to share some

reflections about the numerous

meetings we had and things we

witnessed.

We observed MINUSTAH

armored vehicles, soldiers and police

patrolling every corner of Port-au-

Prince, where Haitians eke out basic

survival amidst earthquake rubble.

The UN Security Council

deployed MINUSTAH in June 2004

to replace the U.S., French and

Canadian troops which occupiedHaiti following the coup dtat

(supported by those same nations)

against former President Jean-

Bertrand Aristide.

According to its mandate,

MINUSTAH should focus on

training and strengthening the

Haitian National Police. But, in

reality, we observed that

MINUSTAH is primarily a military

mission which provides security, not

for Haitis people, but rather forforeign companies (including most

of the large NGOs) and Haitis

business elite.

It's an occupation force that doesn't

help the people, a representative

from the Grassroots Coalition

against MINUSTAH told us. They

terrorize the people in the poor

neighborhoods, they say they are

here to help the people of Haiti who

are in misery, and their sole

objective is to support the

multinationals and the bourgeoisie in

Haiti.

Our delegation learned how

militarization is often justified as

providing security for humanitarian

assistance. For example, 22,000 U.S.

troops and an additional 4,000 UN

troops were deployed to Haiti

following the Jan. 12, 2010

earthquake. But other than a few

token efforts, those troops did not

generally help to save lives, removerubble, or rebuild homes. They

primarily patrolled streets and

guarded businesses, supposedly to

prevent looting.

The UN troops, we were told,

have often conducted deadly raids in

Haitian shantytowns and against

anti-coup demonstrations. In short,

MINUSTAH represses the very

people it pretends to protect.

Although some people feared that

For the full article go to

www.haiti-liberte.com/archives/vol-

ume5-14/Reflections.asp

Documents

Support for Haitian Families: A Statement of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration