TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - Months after becoming the first Haitian from Florida to be elected to Congress, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is working to help Haitians who sail to South Florida looking for better and safer lives.
“We’re still discriminating against Haitian migrants,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
Weeks after hundreds of men, women and children, desperate to escape conditions in Haiti, boarded boats to make it to the U.S., Cherfilus-McCormick and other Haitian Americans are demanding policy changes to make the immigration process fair.
“We’re seeing the terror that’s going on in Haiti. It’s a terror that’s similar to what we see in other areas and in other countries that are being granted asylum, but yet the Haitian community is still being denied asylum,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
A Trump era directive called Title 42, which uses the COVID pandemic as a reason to expel migrants, is still in place. Some Ukrainians, however, have reportedly been allowed in to argue their case.
“Our Haitian brothers and sisters are desperate. That’s the only way you’ll risk your life like that. When you’re a mom and you have your babies, you’ll go to any extent to protect them,” said State Representative Rosalind Osgood.
President Joe Biden, while campaigning in Little Haiti in 2020, said, “I won’t quit on my part as your president, making sure the Haitian community has an even shot, gets back on its feet and moves in the directions that they’ll realize it’s incredible, incredible potential.”
Cherfilus-McCormick sent a letter to the Biden administration, asking Title 42 be rescinded.
“We stand here representing the Haitian diaspora, demanding that equity in immigration is actually enforced,” said Cherfilus-McCormick.
Elected officials and activists toured the Broward Transitional Center where many Haitian migrants are kept until they are deported. She said they are concerned about the conditions they saw there.
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