Our fighting mayor has rightfully criticized the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians. But New York is a sanctuary city, and sanctuary is tested when the federal government demands that we turn our backs on the very people who helped build it.
Haitian TPS holders are being fired. After years, and in many cases decades, of work, tax contributions, pension contributions, public service, and community investment, they are being told that while their labor was welcome, their future is negotiable.
At a time when political leaders, media outlets, and governments devote tremendous attention to the humanitarian crises in Palestine and Israel, Haiti’s crisis continues to be treated as an afterthought. Haiti may not be engaged in a war, but it has been held captive by political instability, violence, foreign interference, economic exploitation, and the erosion of its institutions. The Haitian people have watched their nation stripped of opportunity while the world looked away.
And now, instead of responding with the same compassion, urgency, and conviction afforded to humanitarian crises elsewhere, America responds by firing Haitians.
The same Haitians who have staffed our hospitals, cared for our elderly, built our homes, driven our economy, strengthened public agencies, and sustained New York’s essential workforce.
The same Haitians whose nation became the first Black republic after defeating one of history’s most powerful colonial empires and whose soldiers contributed to the broader struggle for liberty in the Americas.
Yet today, the descendants of those freedom fighters are being told they no longer have a place in the workforce.
Adding to this injustice, many Haitian-serving organizations have seen support reduced, eliminated, or completely defunded under this administration at the very moment our community faces deportation, economic hardship, family separation, and fear.
As chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party and the assemblymember representing the largest concentration of Haitians in New York State, I am concerned that too much political energy is being consumed by internal disputes, political theatrics, and media narratives that exaggerate division while obscuring the real fight before us: protecting people’s life, liberty, and property.
The Supreme Court may speak on the law, but courts do not determine morality, nor do they relieve elected leaders of their responsibility to defend vulnerable communities from unjust outcomes.
The Haitian Revolution taught the world that freedom is secured through courage, sacrifice, and resistance. The revolutionary call of “koupe tèt, boule kay” emerged from a people refusing slavery and colonial domination and determined to secure liberty and human dignity.
The Democratic Socialists of America have often celebrated and drawn inspiration from that revolution and its legacy of freedom and resistance. Yet as Haitians are being fired and stripped of their livelihoods, we are not seeing that same inspiration translated into action. If the Haitian Revolution is truly a source of inspiration, then its lessons must be applied now. Solidarity cannot exist only in symbolism, campaign slogans, speeches, or historical praise. It must be demonstrated in moments of crisis, when vulnerable people are under attack.
We call on our mayor not to surrender and to use every lawful tool available to defend Haitian New Yorkers whose labor, tax dollars, and sacrifices have helped build this city.
The Haitian people are not asking for sympathy. We are asking for leadership. We are demanding a fight worthy of a sanctuary city.
The Haitian people have carried New York for generations. We refuse to be sacrificed now.
Bichotte Hermelyn, a Haitian-American, is the Assembly majority whip and chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.