As President Donald Trump and his ruling cabal continue to court their MAGA followers by intensifying their hostility toward not-white immigrants, one of their most targeted groups are Haitians. After all, who can forget Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s horrible lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, as of February 2024, ”there were 689,000 U.S.-born Americans who have at least one parent born in Haiti. A total of 1.5 million people living in the United States were either born in the Caribbean country, or have a parent born there.”
Black studies Professor Willie Mack at the University of Missouri-Columbia called out both racism and nativism in current Trump policy and past U.S. policies, writing for the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School:
The Trump Administration’s current mandate of mass deportations is rooted in the U.S.’s long history of anti-Black racism and nativism. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are disproportionally focusing on cities with large communities of color such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles.1 Many of these communities have been decimated by decades of over policing, mass incarceration, anti-Black violence, and poverty. This extra layer of xenophobic hysteria will only further debilitate these communities, for both immigrants and non-immigrants alike. The Trump Administration’s attacks on immigrants of color, especially against Haitians, is a continuation of the longer history anti-Black nativism in the U.S. that is bipartisan. This matters because how the U.S. has treated Haitian immigrants reflects the longer history of anti-Black racism in the U.S. In truth, Haiti and Haitians have always been a laboratory of anti-Black racism in U.S. policy.
Latinos don’t catch a break either, in spite of those who “lean into their whiteness.” Charles Kamasakia senior cabinet adviser for United, wrote about racial disparities in the treatment of undocumented people for The Brookings Institution:
Examining immigration policy through a systemic racism lens reveals that today’s largely Latino undocumented immigrants face far harsher consequences than white Europeans of years past for the same exact offense of unauthorized entry. A system that treats immigrants differently solely to their race is essentially the textbook definition of structural racism
[…]
In sharp contrast to today’s undocumented population, “illegal” European immigrants faced few repercussions. There was virtually no immigration enforcement infrastructure. If caught, few faced deportation. All of those who entered unlawfully before the 1940s were protected from deportation by statutes of limitations, and in the 1930s and 1940s, tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants … were given amnesty.[viii] The few not covered by a statute of limitations or amnesty had another protection: until 1976 the government rarely deported parents of US citizens.[ix] There were no immigrant restrictions on public benefits until the 1970s, and it wasn’t until 1986 that it became unlawful to hire an undocumented immigrant.
In sum, from the early 1900s through the 1960s, millions of predominantly white immigrants entered the country unlawfully, but faced virtually no threat of apprehension or deportation. Businesses lawfully employed these immigrants, who were eligible for public benefits when they fell on hard times.
By contrast, the undocumented population today—mostly Latino and overwhelmingly people of color— none of the privileges accorded to previous generations of white immigrants. The toughening of immigration laws coincided with a shift of immigration from Europe to newcomers from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, often in the context of racialized debates targeted mainly at Latinos.
Caribbean analyst Kenneth Mohammed, wrote recently for The Guardian about the Trump effect in the U.K.
As Donald Trump rains chaos down upon the US – dismantling the rule of law, trading in rage-fuelled nationalism and bullying the rest of the world – his ideology is now being eagerly imitated not just by the expected rogues of global politics, but by supposed bastions of democracy. These democracies now wear a mask of civility over that old colonial impulse: to control, divide, exploit.
Most disturbing is the UK’s quiet complicity, sneaking its own brand of institutional cruelty. Like seasoned illusionists, they use chaos abroad to obscure injustice at home, to legitimise morally indefensible immigration policies. It is as though the UK and the US exchanged a sly nod across the Atlantic, and said: “Let’s see just how far we can go.”
[…]
The US is now overseeing the deportation of thousands. Not illegal migrants. Legal. Some have lived in the country for decades, built families, contributed to society, paid taxes. As detention centre doors slam, dreams are extinguished in real time.
[…]
Not to be outdone, the UK has begun tightening visa restrictions on African and Caribbean nations under the thinnest of pretences. To us, the message is clear: if you are the wrong colour and hail from a former colony, you’re not welcome. Of course, you’re more than welcome if you are Ukrainian or bringing money or minerals.
Caroline Echwald, an attorney for the U.K. immigration law firm Seraphus, wrote:
The roots of racism within the UK immigration system can be traced back to colonial-era policies. With the Windrush scandal, the wrongful detention and deportation of Caribbean migrants who had been living in the UK for decades was exposed. Despite promises of reform in the aftermath, racial bias continues to permeate the structures of immigration in the UK, disproportionately affecting racialised and minoritized individuals. Recent legislative developments have once again brought this issue to the forefront, further exacerbating racial inequalities within the immigration system.
The Windrush scandal it was a British political scandal that came to light in 2018 concerning British subjects from Caribbean countries who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases, deported. Amelia Gentleman, reporter and author of the book “The Windrush Betrayal: Exposing the Hostile Environment” wrote for The Guardian:
The origins of the Windrush scandal lay in 30 years of racist immigration legislation designed to reduce the UK’s non-white population, according to a leaked government report.
The stark conclusion was set out in a Home Office commissioned paper that officials have repeatedly tried to suppress over the past year.
The 52-page analysis by an unnamed historian, which has been seen by the Guardian, describes how “the British Empire depended on racist ideology in order to function”, and sets out how this affected the laws passed in the postwar period.
It concludes that the origins of the “deep-rooted racism of the Windrush scandal” lie in the fact that “during the period 1950-1981, every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK.”
Our neighbors in the Caribbean are closely monitoring Trump’s racist positioning and deportation plans. Take a look at this report from Caribbean Focus Lifestyle which focuses on Trump’s immigration enforcement, Guantanamo Bay concerns, diplomatic tensions, and the remittance crisis threatening the Caribbean:
Imagine waking up to find your father or mother gone—detained overnight, no warning, no trial, just disappeared. Imagine living in the U.S. for decades, raising children, building a life, and then suddenly being deported to a country you barely remember. This isn’t a nightmare—it’s the harsh reality facing thousands of Caribbean nationals today.
Donald Trump’s mass deportation crackdown is in full swing, with a goal of removing over 2 million undocumented migrants by the end of 2025. Families are being torn apart. Lives are left in limbo. And now, there’s growing fear that Guantanamo Bay, a site once notorious for detaining suspected terrorists, could become a holding facility for Caribbean migrants.
But what does this mean for the Caribbean? The consequences are devastating. Jamaica, the Bahamas, and other nations are bracing for a wave of deportees—many of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades. Their return will not only strain social services but could also trigger an economic crisis by slashing the billions of dollars in remittances that families rely on to survive.
Whether here in the U.S., or in the U.K., it’s important that we not only call out racism, but that we support immigrant civil rights organizationsadvocates, and legislators who are fighting back.
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