Thanksgiving Leftovers, partly courtesy of Haitians!

I recently came across an article by The Washington Post about the impact of Haitian immigrants in North Carolina and how their presence has had a powerful impact on the Thanksgiving experience for many Americans.

The article not only highlighted the contributions Haitians make to the U.S. economy but also the major impact and ripple effect it will have if these protected immigrants were to be deported, if Trump had his way.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Butterball turkeys are one of Thanksgiving’s most recognizable brands, and each year the Mount Olive facility processes 500 million pounds. The arrival of workers [such as Petit-Frere] eight years ago reshaped the company and the town around it, filling vacant homes, creating new businesses and injecting money into local grocery stores and retailers that had seen incomes stagnate.

If these workers are sent home, local officials fear it could unwind much of the revival the area has seen in the past eight years.

“If the Haitians and other immigrants suddenly went away, not just in Mount Olive but in eastern North Carolina, agriculture would suffer an amazingly hard blow,” said Charles Brown, the town manager who helped many of them acclimate there. “They’ve contributed to the economy. They’ve contributed to the labor market.”

Petit-Frere is one of nearly 59,000 Haitians working under a temporary protected status program created for them after a 2010 earthquake triggered a humanitarian crisis. Like many of those immigrants, he sends a large portion of his wages home, a critical financial pipeline to an impoverished country where many children bathe in buckets and clean water is sold in bags.

He may not be able to send money home much longer.

President Trump has moved to end the protections for Haitian immigrants, arguing that temporary rules cannot be allowed to remain in place indefinitely. Along with plans to take away similar protections for certain people from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Sudan, Trump’s moves would lead to the deportation of 200,000 workers who have more than 200,000 U.S.-born children.

Immigrants and advocacy groups are suing to block the deportations, and both they and the White House await a ruling in federal court. The administration says the program has run its course, arguing that temporary rules for Haitians cannot be allowed to remain in place indefinitely.

The ruling has major implications for thousands of Haitian immigrants and their newfound communities, as the two groups have become economically intertwined. Extended families in Haiti rely on wages from relatives in the United States, and U.S. companies — including major American brands like Butterball — need their immigrant workforce.”

Take a look into the lives of some of our Caribbean brethen by reading the full story HERE.

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