“We all deserve better”

Paul Pierrilus, a man who was deported to Haiti despite never having lived there, offered his perspective in a Letter to the Editor published in the Washington Post.

As a person of Haitian descent, I know what it’s like to be targeted by Donald Trump’s policies. In the last days of his presidency, I was suddenly locked in immigration detention after living in the United States for more than 35 years, before I was deported to Haiti, a country in which I had never lived.

Now, Mr. Trump is using hateful rhetoric against Haitians in his reelection campaign, after his first administration tried not only to deport people like me, but to revoke citizenship from thousands of nationalized Americans.

Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, just like Haitians in my longtime community of Spring Valley, N.Y., are vital community of our communities. We are fathers, mothers, children and families, some of us fleeing the gang violence and political instability that I now see every day in Haiti, where I have lived in hiding for the past 3½ years.

The United States has a long history of subjecting Haitians and other immigrants of color to violence, targeted deportation and biased immigration policies. Most recently, Border Patrol agents attacked and abused Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border near Del Rio, Tex. Politicians can only spread social media lies about immigrants because the racism that denies Black immigrants their dignity is already so widespread.

Politicians who demonize immigrants lack any real ideas for how to meaningfully respond to people seeking dignity and safety in the United States. American citizens and migrants all deserve better.