Tag: Haiti

Donald Trump doesn’t understand Haiti, immigration or American history

The following article by Chantalle F. Verna, Associate Professor of History and International Relations, Florida International University, was posted on the Conversation website January 14, 2018:

After Haiti signed its Declaration of Independence from France, in 1804, the U.S. started a nearly 60-year political and economic embargo that hobbled the young nation’s growth. Wikimedia

Donald Trump’s denigrating comments about Haiti during a recent congressional meeting shocked people around the globe, but given his track record of disrespecting immigrants, they were not actually that surprising.

Despite campaign promises that Trump would be Haiti’s “biggest champion,” his administration had already demonstrated its disregard for people from this Caribbean island. In November 2017, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would end the Temporary Protected Status that had allowed 59,000 Haitians to stay in the U.S. after a calamitous Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. Continue reading “Donald Trump doesn’t understand Haiti, immigration or American history”

Trump wants to remove these immigrants. An ugly bit of history tells us what it could do to the economy

The following article by Andrew Van Dam was posted on the Washington Post website January 10, 2018:

“Mexican men and children who live in corral.” Robstown, Texas, 1939. (Russell Lee, Farm Security Administration via Library of Congress)

It isn’t cited much in contemporary debate, but one enormous, racist episode in U.S. history could forecast the potential economic fallout of the Trump administration’s decision to terminate the residency permits of those granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the United States.

Between 1929 and 1934, Americans were getting hammered by the Great Depression. As their anger and frustration grew, it was directed toward America’s Mexican population. During the ’30s, an estimated 400,000 and 500,000 Mexicans and American citizens of Mexican descent were sent “home,” often forcibly, by state and local officials, with the approval of the federal government. Continue reading “Trump wants to remove these immigrants. An ugly bit of history tells us what it could do to the economy”