Haitians in Rockland decry nixing of parole program

Nancy Cutler

Rockland/Westchester Journal News

USA TODAY NETWORK

SPRING VALLEY – More than 500,000 people living in the U.S. under a special humanitarian parole program have until April 24 to get out. That includes at least 3,000 Haitians now living and working in Rockland.

The Trump administration revoked a policy known as the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela humanitarian parole program, or CHNV. The Federal Register shows the Department of Homeland Security termination effective March 25; the notice gives CHNV recipients in the U.S. 30 days to leave.

'Parolees without a lawful basis to remain in the United States following this termination of the CHNV parole programs must depart the United States before their parole termination date,' the notice states.

'This has nothing to do with immigration; it’s a black-and-white issue,' said Renold Julien, CEO of Konbit Neg Lakay, a community center in Spring Valley that’s been helping immigrants since 1996.

All four countries cited in CHNV are home to primarily people of color. Meanwhile, Julien noted, Trump has been championing a plan to offer white South African Afrikaners refugee status in the U.S.

Jean Denis Gauthier takes a different approach.

Gauthier, an artist who volunteers to teach art to children, is currently in the U.S. on a temporary visa. On Tuesday, he said he plans to return to Haiti on Saturday.

Gauthier’s wife, though, is in the U.S. on CHNV status. They have a son who is a U.S. resident and lives on the West Coast. Gauthier’s wife plans to stay in the U.S. until the last minute, he said, hoping for some sort of reprieve.

But if things don’t change, Gauthier said, she will go.

'I don’t care about the racist talk,' he said in a mix of Haitian Creole and English, referring to the aggressive rhetoric used during the presidential campaign and beyond. He said it was a matter of faith.

Gauthier issued an appeal to President Donald Trump. He noted the Republican president says he is a Christian.

Gauthier said he, too, and many of the people seeking to stay in the U.S. are Christians.

'I believe that Christ has no color,' he said.

What is CHNV and how did it work?

CHNV was started in 2022, then expanded to include all four countries’ refugees in 2023 under then-President Joe Biden. It’s often called the Biden Program, especially among Haitian recipients.

The largest number of CHNV recipients are from Haiti.

To come to the U.S. under CHNV, a person needed a sponsor who could demonstrate they could financially support the person or family who would live here.

The advantage is that the recipient applies from their home country; the plan was touted by Biden as a way to ease pressure on the Southern border.

CHNV parole status is for two years. During that time, a person can get working papers and seek asylum, which provides a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

That window to apply for a way to stay, though, doesn’t match people’s experience with the U.S. timetable for approving permissions.

Jean Marie Lauture, who was a high-ranking police official in Haiti, has been in the U.S. since Sept. 13, 2023. He has applied for asylum, but he hasn’t been approved by the U.S. He said others who applied last year, like him, also haven’t heard back.

'We came here to get an education, get a profession, pay taxes,' Lauture said through translator Steeve Cadet, who works for Fidelis Care in an office at Konbit Neg Lakay. 'The same way that the president loves this country, we love this country. It’s the greatest country in the world.'

What’s next for Haitians in U.S. under CHNV?

Fritz Gerald Tondreau is an attorney who practices in his native Rockland and Buffalo. He was at Konbit Neg Lakay in downtown Spring Valley on Tuesday, helping people make sense of the new directive.

'Trump has been doing things outside of the Constitution,' he said. 'Even these immigrants are supposed to be afforded due process rights.'

While people could technically apply for Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, that in itself poses challenges.

TPS gives people who are already in the U.S. permission to stay here because their home countries are facing significant challenges.

But Trump ended TPS, too, for most of these same people.

So even if a Haitian CHNV recipient living in the U.S. received TPS, they would still face deportation in August, when Haiti’s TPS status ends.

'There aren’t a lot of options,' he admitted. 'It’s a very scary time for a lot of people.'

Haitians in the U.S. in political crosshairs

The tone about CHNV became immediately clear after the Trump Administration took office. A Jan. 21 statement by Homeland Security said the program had been 'abused' and had allowed an 'invasion.'

But rhetoric targeting Haitians was laid out well before Americans even voted in November 2024.

Trump and his team throughout the presidential campaign blasted immigration programs, and immigrants themselves, especially in relation to Haitians.

CHNV was cut off for new recipients back in January.

People already here under CHNV expressed the hope that they would be safe to stay as they pursued asylum status.

'I was invited by President Biden,' Loueise Mary Pierristil said in January, during a break from a morning English class at Konbit. 'The right thing to do is for whoever is president to respect that.'

Chaos and crime in Haiti, plus loss of U.S. aid

Lauture, the police official who’s been in the U.S. for a year and a half, said he met U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, who had come to Konbit Neg Lakay.

The Pearl River Republican, Lauture said, told him 'he will do whatever he can to make sure than TPS and asylum will be here.'

Lawler’s 17th District includes parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties, as well as Putnam and Rockland, which includes Spring Valley, where Konbit is located. The village is home to one of the largest Haitian diasporas per capita in the U.S.

Lawler is a co-sponsor on bipartisan legislation to extend TPS.

'Congressman Lawler is committed to working to address the issues with the TPS program and navigating the deteriorating security situation in Haiti,' his director of communications, Ciro Riccardi, said.

The word 'deteriorating' hardly touches the current chaos in Haiti, according to Duchene Fils Aime. He returned from a visit to Haiti last week.

'No matter where you live you’re exposed,' said Fils Aime, who is a U.S. permanent resident. 'Anytime the bandits can enter the area, start shooting, start burning, start looting.'

Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues efforts to cut Haiti’s aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

The U.S. aid cuts could exacerbate dangers in Haiti just as the U.S. is sending those who were part of the CHNV program back to the country.

UNICEF officials told Reuters that the loss of education aid and child nutrition programs would create an even more desperate situation and ease recruitment of children by armed gangs.