The following is taken from Elikya Ngoma’s presentation at the October 6, 2021 webinar, titled “Haitians at the border: U.S. out of Haiti! Down with Colonialism!” hosted by the African People’s Socialist Party.
DEL RIO, TEXAS—There are over 7,000 Africans from Haiti, or “Haitians,” facing deportation at the Texas border, where United States president Joe Biden has been sending back about 6-8 flights a day.
According to The New York Times:
“The rise in Haitian migration began in the months after president Biden took office and quickly began reversing former president Trump’ immigration policies, which many people as a sign that the U.S. would probably be more welcoming to migrants.
“In May, the administration extended temporary protected status for the 150,000 Haitians already living in the country.”
After the January 12, 2010 earthquake that took place in Haiti, so many Africans from Haiti were brought into this country through this process called the “Temporary Protected Status (TPS).”
Over the years, the amount of time they could stay had been extended.
Many Africans who were leaving Haiti have been going to countries in so-called South or Latin America. There is an increase in Haitian people and Haitian communities in places like Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Panama and there’s a path they take until they get to Mexico and then cross into the United States, or some just stay in those countries if they are not able to make that path to make it into the United States.
Because of these recent changes, many of our people hoped they would either be counted as one of those with TPS and their stay would be “allowed,” or they just would not be turned back.
When you talk about the question of why there is such an influx of Africans from Haiti in the United States, you have to talk about the questions of U.S. colonialism in Haiti and the presence of the United States in Haiti.
The United States is there to keep our people in oppression, to install neocolonial presidents and neocolonial government “leaders” that do not work in the interest of our people, but instead just continue to steal our wealth and resources and also keep our people tied to the colonial-enslavers, which is the United States themselves.
When you have people leaving countries such as Haiti or other parts of the world and come into places like the United States, France and Canada, we are going to the same places that are constantly raping our people of our wealth and resources and that action is actually us chasing our own resources, whether the people who are making that move are actively conscious of that at that moment, or if they think the United States is the so-called “land of promises,” or the so-called “land of the free.”
The United States continues to make attacks against the people of Haiti
The United States has been involved in an over 200-year process of punishing our people in Haiti, for the courageous Revolution that we won in November of 1803 and celebrated every January 1, remembering the January 1, 1804 independence date.
Between 1791 and 1803, for 13 years straight, the Africans there were united in extremely organized resistance, struggle and efforts to make Revolution, which would actually become the First Workers’ Revolution in the World and the first Revolution won by enslaved people against colonial slavery.
Since then, Haiti has been made to pay for standing up to the colonial enslavers and standing up for the freedom of African people around the world.
This is the relationship we have to these countries. It’s a parasitic relationship and it’s a relationship that enriches them and impoverishes us.
Haiti has been made “unlivable”. A lot of people deem it as “unlivable” and that is a result of colonialism and neocolonialism.
The United States is always engaged in a campaign against the people of Haiti. In the 1980s, when the HIV/AIDS crises first came about, “Haitians” was one of the “4 Hs” to blame for HIV/AIDS, which was hemophiliacs, heroin addicts, homosexuals and Haitians.”
The treatment at the border is not something that came out of nowhere. It is indeed an attack, not only against African people, but also, it’s very much an anti-Haitian act.
The United States government continues to humiliate people from Haiti as a message to us and to other black people around the world that “you will forever pay for waging the Revolution.”
The United States is a settler-colonial state with no legitimacy on the question of “immigration”
Something that was popular in the mid-90s was the “Wet Feet, Dry Feet” policy (also called “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” policy) and the difference in how that was implemented when you had migrants coming in from Cuba versus from Haiti.
The migrants coming in from Cuba were specifically those who had betrayed the revolutionary forces of Cuba, those who were united with white nationalism and the United States and counterinsurgent forces, where they could come any other way and would be allowed into the country, whereas African people from Haiti would be turned back.
The United States has no right or legitimacy to talk about immigration or who is legal or illegal in any country, and especially not in this country.
The United States itself is a country that was created by stealing someone else’s land. They just imposed themselves onto someone else’s land. There is no legitimacy to white people ever saying who’s an immigrant, who can stay or who can be sent back, for whatever reason, because they would have to be the first to go.
As the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), we condemn the actions of the United States. We condemn the actions of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ administration.
We say that the United States should get out of Haiti, because it’s the United States that has been crossing Haiti.
We raise up the people of Haiti. We raise up the African Revolution of Ayiti.
We raise up Jean-Jacques Dessalines who was the fearless leader of that Revolution, who was a non-compromising, non-surrendering leader who understood that in order for Africans to be free, we have to be completely removed from colonialism and completely removed from the colonizer.
African people who have been sympathizing with the people of Haiti over the past few weeks must join the APSP, because this is all of our problems, not just our problem there in Haiti.
African people from Haiti must join the APSP too, because all of our problems are each other’s problems as the African Nation.
In the Spirit of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, we want to cut all ties with the colonizer.
Koupe Tèt! Boule Kay! (Cut Heads! Burn Houses!)
Victory to the people of Haiti!
Long Live the Haitian Revolution!
Viv Ayiti!
Uhuru!
Join the African People’s Socialist Party at APSPUhuru.org
