Immigration Crackdown Shadows Haitian New Yorkers at West Indian Day Parade

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

Brian Lehrer on WNYC. So Monday was the 59th Annual West Indian Day Parade, which for those who aren't familiar, is basically the New York incarnation of Carnival, held along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn every Labor Day. It's a huge event for New York's many Caribbean communities, huge as in over a million people think music, food, dance, elaborate costumes, if you don't already know or don't already go, it's a big lively celebration of the West Indies. But there was a new layer of anxiety at this year's parade over one of New York's biggest Caribbean communities in our area, the Haitian community. The Trump administration, as many of you know, recently ended what they call temporary protected status for Haitians living in the United States, putting hundreds of thousands of people at risk of losing their legal protections, being deported, losing their jobs. TPS, as a quick reminder, gave immigrants from countries facing certain extraordinary conditions, Haiti included, permission to live and work in the United States and protection from deportation. So that's what's ended, including their authorization to work in this country, which reports are saying has caused many employers to fire their Haitian employees and shortages in some sectors where a lot of Haitians have been working, such as assisted living facilities. The New York metro area has the second largest Haitian population in the country after the Miami area. So the end of TPS is affecting many Haitian New Yorkers, including people who have been living and working here for many years. We'll be doing a special broadcast about this with the public radio stations in Miami and Boston.

Next Thursday night, 7 p.m., next Thursday the 17th, we'll tell you more about that as it comes closer. But for today, we focus on how the end of TPS for Haitians was the backdrop of this year's celebration on Labor Day.

A lot of people saying that fear of the federal government's immigration crackdown pushed a lot of people into the shadows at a time when they normally would have been coming out to celebrate the West Indian Day Parade and Carnival. Ralph Thomassaint Joseph is the Caribbean Communities Correspondent for the news organization Documented, and he's with us now to discuss some of how the festivities were affected by the end of TPS for Haitian New Yorkers. Ralph, great to have you back on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.

Ralph Thomassaint Joseph (2:41)

Good morning, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Brian Lehrer (2:44)

Listeners, we can invite you into this conversation too. How did you celebrate this year's West Indian Day Parade or Jouvert as well? Did the end of temporary protected status for Haitians change the way you celebrated or the way you experienced the parade? Did you notice a different tone this year?

212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692 call or text. Obviously, if you're Haitian, you're invited to call in. Or if you're of any other Caribbean background, or even if you're just someone who loves attending the parade every year, of whatever background, we want to hear from you. You can call or text 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

So Ralph, as I said, New York has the second highest Haitian population in the United States, right behind the Miami area, somewhere between 160,000 and 180,000 people are the stats that I've seen. That's a ton of people. Did it look to you like there were notably fewer Haitians out in public at the parade this year?

Ralph Thomassaint Joseph (3:55)

Well, Brian, I've been covering the Caribbean parade for a few years, and I can tell you that this year felt different, especially for Haitian immigrants. So in the weeks leading up to the parade, I watched debate unfold among Haitians on social media over whether they should participate at all.

So some argued that this was not the time to dance or celebrate. They felt that taking part in these festivities could be seen as a distraction, a lack of solidarity with hundreds of thousands of Haitians who recently lost their legal protection, as you mentioned before. But there were other people who saw it differently. So they argued that this was precisely the time to show up, to show that despite everything the community is going through, Haitians have not given up. So they wanted to come together, celebrate their culture and show their resilience at the moment of the uncertainty. So what I saw on Eastern Parkway, I saw thousands of Haitian immigrants, Haitian-Americans because we must remember that Haitian immigrants have a strong history of participation at the carnival. There are many legal documented Haitian-American in the United States who will usually participate. But this year, many people will usually fly from many different other states, were not able to come to New York, and I was able to interview many people, many participants, and I could feel like there were many Haitians who lost the participation this year.