Vol. 48 No. 47
March 15, 2018 - March 21, 2018
This publication is a Certified DBE/ SBE / MBE in the State of California CUCP #43264 Metro File #7074 & State of Texas File #802505971 “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you -President Lyndon B. Johnson
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Plight of Haitians, Salvadorans Lost in DACA Debate More than 250,000 immigrants at jeopardy after losing Temporary Protected Status By Maya King, Howard University News ServiceOn March 12, 2018
Haitians who came to the United States after a 2010 earthquake ravaged the country had their Temporary Protected Status revoked by the Trump Administration. The have until September 2019 to gain legal status, leave voluntarily or be arrested and deported. Courtesy photo WASHINGTON – Rony Ponthieux’s view of the future changes by the day. A Haitian immigrant living in Miami, Ponthieux has been working in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status,TPS, provision since 2010, when he, his wife and two children, then 3 and 10, left Haiti in the wake of the island’s devastating earthquake. Receiving it, he said, was “a miracle for my family.” Ponthieux now works as a nurse and hopes to eventually become a nurse practitioner. But the fu-
ture changed last year for him and more than 250,000 Haitians and Salvadorans when President Trump decided to end the TPS that had been in place under former president’s George Bush and Barack Obama. Now, he and the others have until next year to get permanent status or leave. “Before [the revocation of his TPS], I was able to work, to go to school, to take care of my family,” Ponthieux said, “”and I was okay with that.” It is unclear, he said, what he will do if Congress doesn’t cre-
ate a way for him and his family to stay in the United States, but he’s not giving up. “We’re still fighting,” he said, “I’m fighting. I feel that something will happen.” As Congress and America continue to debate the plight of 700,000 children brought to the country as infants by their parents, so-called “Dreamers,” lost in conversation is the fate of about 50,000 Haitians and 200,00 Salvadorans were allowed to enter the U.S. temporarily after their countries were devastated by
earthquakes in 2010 and 2001. They will have until September 2019 to gain legal immigrant status or be arrested and deported. Currently, a handful of representatives have proposed bipartisan legislation that would grant permanent legal residency to TPS migrants from Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras. Their bill would grant qualified migrants the option of adjusting their legal status from temporary to legal permanent resident if they received TPS status prior to January 2011.
More than 200,000 residents of Salvador who came to the U.S. in 2001 after an earthquake destroyed much of their country had been granted TPS by former Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. Courtesy Photo The bill is backed by Republican representatives Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Democratic representatives Frederica Wilson and Alcee Hastings. All represent districts in central and south Florida with large Haitian and Salvadoran populations. Wilson wrote a series of tweets pointing out what she said are the consequences of ending TPS for some. “The reality is that in six months, Haiti will still be in no position to absorb and aid 58,000 unemployed people,” Wilson wrote. “It will still be recovering from the 2010 earthquake and the subsequent cholera epidemic im-
ported by U.N. peacekeepers that has killed 10,000.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Baltimore), represents a district with nearly 300,000 Salvadoran migrants. He echoed Wilson’s sentiment. “Rather than destroy the lives of families who have found refuge here from natural disasters and economic despair, the Trump Administration should act to ensure that individuals on TPS can continue to work and support themselves and their families and contribute both to the United States and to the reconstruction of their home countries,” Cummings said in a statement after the initial White House an-
nouncement. Marlene Bastien, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Haitian Women of Miami, said her office has been receiving calls from families who are unsure of their next steps. Bastien said the revocation has left her “shocked and concerned.” “We realized that the termination wasn’t based on the rules and the facts on the ground, but probably on race,” she said. “Immigration, after all, is a racial issue.” After the White House’s initial decision to terminate TPS provisions in last November and Trump’s “sh*thole countries” comment in January in reference to Haiti and African nations, or-
ganizers in Miami and the District of Columbia—two cities with large Haitian and El Salvadoran populations—have held a number of protests. They have also made several trips to Washington, hoping to galvanize lawmakers who, according to Bastien, “lack courage” when it comes to acting on immigration legislation. Two of those could be Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson. Bastien is urging Rubio and Nelson to protect the thousands of TPS recipients in Florida and to remind the rest of the country of the importance of Haitians and Salvadorans in the immigra(continued on page 7)
Editor in Chief’s Corner Email: sbamericannews@gmail.com Clifton Harris Publisher of The San Bernardino AMERICAN News
Racial Slur Written on Historic African American Building Is ‘Immature,’ Says Police Chief Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman called the racist terrorism “probably more mischievous than it is sinister.” By Kaitlyn D'Onofrio / March 13, 2018 Police in Massachusetts are searching for the culprit who wrote a racial slur on a historic African American museum, an act the police chief called “immature.” The “immature” message left on the African Meeting House, which is also part of a museum, was “N****R LEAVE.” Also next to the slur was a phallic symbol. “My first impression of that is … we’re dealing with somebody who is obviously very immature,” Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman told the Boston Globe. “It’s probably more mischievous than it is sinister, but their choice of location couldn’t have been worse.” In a press release posted on social media the police department called the graffiti “an act of hate directed at persons of color.” The population of Nantucket, Mass., is about three quarters white and just 10 percent Black. Charity-Grace Mofsen, manager of the African Meeting House, told the Inquirer and Mirror she “broke down” hysterically when she discovered the hateful message. “It was incredibly hurtful. In a sense, it just feels like nowhere’s safe,” she told the Boston Globe in an interview. “To see this place that is such a tight-knit community and so peaceful — we’re not exempt,” she said. “We’re still dealing with the same issues that you would find in the South, or the smalltown Midwest. It’s everywhere.” When news broke of the graffiti, dozens of residents turned out to help clean the building — a glimmering light of unity in the wake of an awful situation. “Nantucket has such a rich history, it’s what brought me to the island,” Mofsen said to the Inquirer and Mirror. “Seeing how whites and Blacks and natives were able to figure out how to live and work together so early on. So to see that once again we have people coming together when they see that something is wrong and hateful, we get together and say ‘this is not what we stand for, this is not what our island is about.’ I think it is good to see people come out and show their support.” Racism and Hate Crimes in Trump’s America Even if the person who committed the crime is a juvenile, the act itself should not be taken lightly. In the days following President Donald Trump’s election, hate crimes spiked across the country. Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported that in the 10
Nantucket Police Chief William Pittman days after Election Day, 867 hate crimes occurred across the country — meaning they occurred at a rate roughly seven times higher than the national average. Of those crimes, 187 took place at a school for grades K-12. More crimes were only reported in “public spaces.” As DiversityInc reported in November 2016: “Earlier this month, the FBI released its annual hate crimes report, revealing that 5,818 singlebias incidents occurred in 2015. This averages about 112 incidents per week — a fraction of the average seen since the election. “In 2015, on average, 115 racially motivated hate incidents targeting people of all races occurred every 10 days. In the 10 days following the election, there were more anti-Black incidents alone — 187.” The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that two-thirds of hate crimes are never reported, meaning the statistics likely do not even tell the whole story. Hate continued to spill into 2017, according to SPLC’s Intelligence Report: “If 2016 was the year of white supremacists being electrified by the rise of Donald Trump, his inauguration in January sent them into a frenzy. They believed they finally had a sympathizer in the White House and an administration that would enact policies to match their anti-immigrant, antiMuslim and racist ideas. “Throughout the year, Trump thrilled and comforted them with his apparent kinship and pugilistic style, his refusal to condemn hate crimes committed in his name and his outrageous statements equating neo-Nazis and anti-racist activists after the deadly violence in Charlottesville.” While Charlottesville was a setback, white nationalists continue seeing victories, SPLC also noted: “A post-Charlottesville Washington Post/ABC News survey found that 9 percent of Americans — about 22 million people — thought it was fine to hold neoNazi or white supremacist views. (continued on page 3)
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