Donald Trump and maga Republicans are deporting important Haitian immigrants who are caring for frail aging Americans

Echo opinion published in the Los Angeles Times by Jackie Calmes

The nonsense of deporting immigrants who came legally and do much-needed work.

Jackie Calmes  Donald Trump’s obvious and laughably far-fetched lies from 2024, (and his supporters’ shoddy AI propaganda) have morphed into federal policy now, as the administration has revoked temporary protected status that allowed some Haitians to live and work in the United States.

As of this week, with a green light from the Supreme Court’s right-wing supermajority, Trump is free to mount his long-promised mass deportation campaign in earnest. His Homeland Security Department notified employers last week that about 350,000 Haitian immigrants no longer are protected, triggering mass layoffs. 

Trump's blood-stained Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has plans, CBS News reports, to begin sweeping them up.

But contrary to Trump’s reckless rhetoric, neither the Haitians nor another 1 million targeted immigrants from a dozen other nations are here illegally — at least they weren’t until the administration revoked their legal status after the Supreme Court’s go-ahead last month. 

On Wednesday, a federal district judge reluctantly made it official. All have been legal residents, many for years, under the 36-year-old humanitarian program granting temporary protected status to people who’ve fled countries roiled by war, natural disasters or other extraordinary crises. The protected status beneficiaries have been vetted, paid fees and gotten revetted every 18 months to keep a work permit and ensure they’ve steered clear of crime.

As that description suggests, we are not talking about deporting “the worst of the worst,” as Trump contends ad nauseum.🤢

We are talking about law-abiding essential workers, many with U.S.-born children. And to make matters worse, these workers are being deported from our nation with an aging population and labor shortages. These are people who take jobs that many Americans won’t do, like bathing, diapering, feeding and generally keeping company with elderly citizens who need care and companionship. People who — if moral and humanitarian considerations aren’t enough for you — are crucial to the economies of many states, notably red ones including Florida and Ohio.

We’re talking about schools’ cafeteria workers and janitors, and the people who clean toilets and wheel disabled passengers to their flights at airports. Haitian workers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport burst into tears when they were told to turn in their badges, the Washington Post reported Friday. 

We’re also talking about doctors, engineers and other well-educated professionals.

Like Fritz Emmanuel Lesly Miot, a Haitian in California who was the name plaintiff in the lawsuit against Trump’s effort to rescind protected status before its planned sunset and who was spotlighted by Justice Elena Kagan in a scathing dissent against the Supreme Court majority’s decision.

As Kagan recounted, Miot has lived in the United States for more than 15 years, since an earthquake in 2010, devastated Haiti and its economy and exacerbated political and gang violence that persists to this day. Miot works in a lab researching Alzheimer’s disease, thanks to his temporary protected status work permit. He also has Type 1 diabetes, an easily treatable disease here but potentially “a death sentence” in Haiti, Kagan wrote, “given that country’s collapsed health-care infrastructure.” Unless kidnappers in Haiti get him first, as Miot fears.

Something must be done for the hundreds of thousands like him, and can be. The House in April passed a bipartisan bill to extend protected status for Haitian migrants for three years. But two weeks ago, Republicans in the Senate blocked it. Even if the measure were revived and passed, Trump presumably would veto it.

Still, should the president maintain his xeonophobic, racist and economically foolish stance, he could at least delay deportations, allowing both the targeted employees and their employers the time to adjust, as numerous business groups for healthcare providers, small manufacturers, restaurants, hotels and other service industries have begged the administration to do. The National Restaurant Assn. warned in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “Many affected employees are long-serving, legally authorized workers who are central to restaurant operations. Their departure could remove a substantial share of the local hospitality workforce overnight.”

But consideration for real-life consequences is not how MAGA rolls. As the Trumpian truism goes, cruelty is the point — especially when it comes to immigration.

Trump ally Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, one of the Senate’s most far-right Republicans, heartlessly harrumphed in what passed for Senate debate: “America is not a global refugee camp.… America is our home, and when houseguests become squatters, you don’t delay enforcement. You call the sheriff and you send them home.”

And in doing so, you’ve shot yourself in the foot, economically.

In contrast with the likes of Trump and Schmitt, Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has been making the economic as well as moral case for holders of temporary protected status and Haitians in particular since 2024. That’s when he publicly refuted the idiotic campaign claims of Trump and running mate JD Vance, then a senator for Ohio, about Haitians in struggling Springfield, Ohio. “They’re eating the dogs,” Trump blurted in the nationally televised presidential debate against Kamala Harris that September. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Neither global mockery nor the homegrown rebukes from DeWine and other Ohio officials and local police stopped Trump’s and Vance’s hateful lies. And now that they’re president and vice president, an offensive against the Haitians as well other foreigners with protected status is apparently underway. DeWine, courageously, is still speaking out in the small hope of stopping it.

Last week the governor told CBS News that deporting Haitians from Ohio — sending them “back to hell” — would be “a blow” to the state: “They came there because there were jobs that were not being filled by other people.”

But, DeWine added, the issue is bigger than the Haitians in Ohio: “The massive deporting of people, you’re going to see it all over the country.”  

Nationwide, he said, over a third of the workers tending to people in long-term care facilities or in homes are immigrants. Once they’re deported, he predicted, “You’re not going to be able to find people to replace them, frankly.”

People like Augustine, who out of fear gave the Washington Post only her first name. Until this week, she cared for nine residents at a Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., nursing home. One called Augustine “my daughter.”

That elderly woman loses a lot, thanks to Trump. She and the entire country.

JD Vance obvously does not read the Ten Commandments because he spreads false witness about innocent immigrants

Echo opinion by columnist Cameron Smith published in The Tennessean newspaper:

OMG! eating pets are nonsense designed to divide Americans
We mostly ignore the “e pluribus unum” on the cash in our pockets. America affirms “From many, one.” It’s an imperfectly executed ideal, but it begs us to connect instead of divide.

When my oldest son spends time with Dennis and Isaiah, they don’t ask to see his proof of citizenship.

They recognize his family traditions are a little different, but they always include him even if he doesn’t quite understand what’s going on.

The language barrier is significant, but they make it work because they genuinely care. I can’t definitively say whether my son has eaten any domesticated dogs or cats, but his friends love him more than they fear his cultural influence.

Refusing to reflect the same gracious approach to our myriad differences rejects one of America’s highest ideals.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve watched my Republican brethren contort themselves to justify “noble” political lies drawing the nation’s attention to an immigration situation in Springfield, Ohio.

The Republican nominees for president and vice president have claimed that pets, cats, dogs, and possibly geese, are being eaten by Haitian immigrants.

The horrible claims were accompanied by a viral video of blood-soaked Alexis Ferrell who was arrested and charged in August for allegedly killing and eating a cat just outside of Canton, Ohio, which is about 150 miles from Springfield. 

Guess what❓Ferrell is neither Haitian nor a migrant❗ She’s also raising insanity as a defense against the charges brought against her.

JD Vance creates stories, but here are the facts on Haitian immigrants:  When pressed on the matter J.D. Vance said, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” ahhh....so what about the suffering Vance caused to the innocent immigrants❓ (So let me get this ❓😏- Vance claims to be a Roman Catholic convert.  HELLO❗ As a practicing Roman Catholic woman I can tell the world with 100 percent certainty that when anybody creates false stories about people, the sin falls into the Ten Commandments:  Thout shalt not bear false witness. Exodus 20:16. Amen.)

Springfield faces a legitimate immigration challenge. Political hyperbole only makes it worse.

Haitian immigrants fled to the United States to avoid abject poverty and political violence. The vast majority have utilized President Joe Biden’s legal pathways to enter America which include work authorization under Temporary Protected Status.

As a result, about 15,000 Haitians have migrated to Springfield over the last several years. They now comprise almost 20% of the population and 15% of the workforce.

That much growth in a short time frame creates strain on existing infrastructure.

In sending additional resources to the city, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine noted the difficulties facing the community. “When you go from a population of 58,000 and add 15,000 people onto that, you're going to have some challenges and some problems,” DeWine said. “And we're addressing those.”

Contrary to Vance’s stupid lies and assertions, the issue has also been widely covered by the media. From migrant perpetrated violence to America’s southwest border to Congress, it’s hard to miss the immigration as a topic of public interest.

Just this year, our political leaders developed and Republicans dismissed immigration legislation that would have addressed a wide range of immigration issues including asylum.

We don’t need to accuse a discreet migrant group of eating pets to enable such conversations. We must also ensure that our “cultural concerns” aren’t racism by another name.

My son, Cam, first met Dennis and Isaiah at Barefoot Republic, a Christ-centered summer camp which facilitates Christ-centered relationships between individuals from diverse racial, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Isaiah is bilingual and served as an interpreter since phones at the cam were off limits. The teens discovered that they lived about a half hour from each other in the Middle Tennessee area, and they’ve been spending time together ever since.

Cam wouldn’t appreciate his friends and their families questioning his immigration status because of the color of his skin. He’d be understandably upset if they made fun of his hair or clothes. I’m pretty sure he still hasn’t decided if he likes the nickname “Papi Chulo.” Imagine if his friends accused the Williamson County kid of stealing family pets and eating them.

Do we care about “e pluribus unum”? Let’s act upon it then

My son now frequently finds himself in the unfamiliar minority, and he’s treated exceptionally well. He realizes what it’s like not to understand. His friends help him.

He feels what it’s like to look different. They let him borrow their clothes. It creates real empathy that lasts when he’s back in a majority context.

We mostly ignore the “e pluribus unum” on the cash in our pockets. America affirms “From many, one.” It’s an imperfectly executed ideal, but it begs us to connect instead of divide.

We can both enforce immigration laws faithfully and simultaneously refuse to assume that people who speak a different language or have different amounts of melanin in their skin don’t belong.

That’s the America I want❗⭐🌟🤩

I don’t need a political champion to bring it about. I don’t want legislation introduced to fix it. I just need “Papi Chulo” and his friends to build lasting relationships instead of giving way to those who shout that fear is the safer course. 

I’m not so naive as to believe that everyone will follow their example. I have hope that enough will.