NYC Asks Feds to Protect Haitian Immigrants

By Kings County Politics News Service

FLATBUSH, BROOKLYN — Local politician Mathieu Eugene, representing Brooklyn's Haitian immigrant-heavy Flatbush neighborhood on the New York City Council, led the way this week in passing a City Council resolution asking the federal government to give special protection to all Haitian nationals living in the U.S.

"The Council of the City of New York calls upon the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to grant Haiti a new designation for Temporary Protected Status," or TPS, the resolution said, "to provide temporary immigration relief to eligible Haitian nationals in the United States, as well as to stop the detention and repatriation of Haitian nationals ineligible for immigration relief, in the wake of Hurricane Matthew."

The designation would provide temporary immigration relief to eligible Haitian nationals in the U.S. It would also help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, which is currently unable to sustain an influx of Haitian deportees.

“Any country in the world, even a rich country, would find it difficult to recover after several natural disasters," Eugene, who himself was born in Haiti, said Monday. "I think it makes sense that we, as elected officials, advocate and work together to insure that the American government and homeland security grants TPS to Haitian people who are now in the United States because they cannot return to Haiti,” said Eugene."

NYC is home to the largest Haitian immigration population in the country. (Somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000, depending on who's counting.) They're most heavily concentrated in the Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Canarsie, Midwood and Park Slope neighborhoods of Brooklyn; the Upper West Side, Harlem and Washington Heights in Manhattan; and parts of Queens and the Bronx.

U.S. protection was already granted to Haitian nationals who fled their country after 2010's devastating earthquake, according to the City Council. However, any immigrants who entered after July 23, 2011, are not protected. (And even for those who entered beforehand, their protection is set to end on July 22, 2017.)

Renewing TPS would allow Haitian nationals to remain in the U.S. and pursue opportunities for a better future, the Council said.

Joining Flatbush politician Eugene in pushing the measure were City Council Immigration Committee members Carlos Menchaca (representing Sunset Park and Red Hook), Peter Koo and Daniel Dromm.

Pictured at top: Mathieu Eugene. Photo via Twitter

A version of this article originally appeared on the Kings County Politics news site