It’s Time to Stop U.S. Hypocrisy In Haiti.

Did you see the despicable "Haiti story" in the New York Times the other day?

I’m referring to the one about the 30 Haitian earthquake survivors, who had been ushered onto planes bound for the U.S., while the cameras were rolling and the world was still paying attention to the tragedy in their country. That's the same story that said that, since their arrival, here, the Haitians have all been held as prisoners of the U.S. Immigration System, in detention centers, in Florida.

Doesn’t it make your head spin to think back to two weeks ago, when former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush traveled to Haiti “to remind Americans that Haiti is still suffering and in need of long-term, quake-related relief?"

Those poor detained souls – none of whom happened to have any sort of criminal record – had been “waved” onto military flights by U.S. Marines, with no time for normal immigration processing. You were probably watching as it happened, on the evening news. Now, apparently, the evacuees are learning that they must have done something terribly wrong.

According to news reports, when they showed up in the U.S. without visas, they were immediately taken into custody by immigration officials and held for deportation – and you won’t believe this – back to Haiti.

Sounds like a “B” movie plot, doesn’t it? Maybe they can get that brother, Tracey Morgan, to play the lead role.

If I were Haitian, my jaws would be “locked.”

The United States, it seems, has always treated the Haitians like "step children," contributing significantly, through its policies, to the country’s status as the "poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere." This latest debacle is entirely consistent with that long-standing pattern.

Maybe our founding fathers and their political descendants have never quite gotten over the fact that, in 1791, the Haitians pulled off the only successful slave-led revolution in history, overthrowing French rule and becoming the world’s first, independent, post-colonial, black nation.

Maybe that’s why the United States stood by and didn't intervene, in 1825, despite the adoption of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, while the French staked an initial claim of 150 million francs in reparations to be paid to the former French slaveholders. As a result, the new Haitian government was quickly bankrupted and forced to borrow the money from French banks to make payments to the slaveholders. Those same banks wound up controlling the country’s economy, despite Haiti's newly won “independent” status, and plunging the Haitian people into the poverty from which they have never, really, emerged.

As onerous as all of that may have seemed back in 1825, France’s claim for 150 million francs in reparations to its slaveholders was just a pittance compared to the $1.8 billion in peak debt the tiny island nation wound up owing to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the Inter-American Bank.

So, what were “Bill” and “W” really doing down there in Haiti, anyway? In an interview with the Miami Herald, Clinton said that his mission in Haiti, along with George W. Bush, was to “...help fill the gaps of human needs and help create jobs…by stimulating entrepreneurship…”

By "stimulating entrepreneurship," was he referring to quickly restoring the earthquake-ravished Haitian apparel and textile production industry? That’s the one, by the way, that, over a ten-month period ending in October, 2009, exported $424 million in clothing items for brands such as Hanes and Jos. A. Bank men’s clothing to the U.S., all while paying the Haitians who worked to produce those items a minimum wage of $3.09 for an 8-hour day. (That, by the way, represented an increase, amazingly, from $1.72 a day, just a year ago). One news account pointed out that a pin-striped men’s suit produced by a young Haitian woman at the $3.09 wage scale would be shipped stateside to Jos. A. Bank, where it would be sold for $550.

With those kinds of numbers, it’s easy to understand the U.S. concern about the earthquake’s impact in Haiti--not so much for the safety and well-being of the Haitian people, but because the island's highly profitable apparel production has been down by 50-70 percent, since the January 12 earthquake.

I often wonder whether the U.S. really is still holding some sort of strange “grudge” against the Haitian people for having staged their successful slave revolt. Strangely, the U.S. government doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as adamant about deporting its 7-20 million predominantly Latin American illegal immigrants as it seems to be with the Haitians.

In fact, just a week ago, the President, himself, offered high praise for a bi-partisan immigration reform proposal from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Under the proposal, the U.S. would address its "immigration issue" by “improving border security,” “introducing a new system for admitting temporary workers,” by “issuing biometric ID cards" and (here’s the “kicker”) by “establishing a process for legalizing illegal immigrants currently residing here in the U.S."

According to Schumer and Graham, current "illegals" would be given “legal” status, if they paid any back taxes and fees they owed, if they submitted to background checks, if they completed an English proficiency test and performed “community service.”

Bam! Just like that…they’d become legal U.S. citizens.

While all of this was being worked on, the same Obama administration, right up to the day the earthquake actually struck Haiti, had been engaged in a high-profile initiative to deport 30,299 Haitians out of the United States, even in the wake of last year’s horrendous tropical storm on the island that destroyed 15 percent of the nation’s economy, left 800 dead and tens of thousands homeless.

I wouldn’t want you to get the impression that the Obama administration has been acting in any way inconsistently with U.S. policy toward Haiti. Just the opposite appears to be true. The Bush administration, you may recall, maintained a standing practice of denying entry to this country by Haitian immigrants and turning back Haitian refugees who tried to reach these shores by boat. The new administration has, apparently, simply picked up where George W. Bush left off.

Here’s the question: Does the United States still maintain separate "admission standards" for potential African and black immigrants than it does for other people who are “yearning to be free?”

If so, we really do need to address that, as soon as humanly possible.

Africans continue to be the very highest educated of all immigrant groups admitted to this country, and Haitians, as far as I can tell, have become good and productive citizens, in the main, once they arrive here. Indeed, Mr. Obama and other residents of our third-largest city – Chicago, Illinois – should be especially sensitive to that issue, given that the City, itself, was founded in the late 1700’s by a Haitian of African descent named John Baptist Pointe du Sable.

This whole issue about the egregious treatment of the Haitian people really came to a head for me after I read about the 30 Haitian detainees, including one 25-year old, whose surname is Ulysse, but whose family, ironically, gave him the very pro-American first name, "Reagan."

So, there he is, Reagan Ulysse, sitting in a detention center, waiting to be deported back to Haiti, after having been flown out by military transport “for his own good,” while CNN, Fox, Reuters, and the Washington Post were all watching, 10 weeks ago.

Can you spell "hypocrisy?"

If so, the next time you communicate with Bill Clinton, George Bush or Barack Obama, let them know that you believe U.S. treatment of Haiti has been hypocritical, at best, and, certainly, inhumane.



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