Protest at 100 Montgomery St. Demands TPS Protection for Haitians

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

(San Francisco, Fwb. 2) - The action was brought by Haiti Action Committee, Myanmar Student Union, NorCal TPS Coalition, Community Liberation Programs fight Trump's Racist Campaign to Deport Immigrants to demand that TPS continue.

Recall that it was Haiti that accomplished the Western Hemisphere's only successful slave revolt against a European power.

It was against Haitians immigrants that Trump's racist actions reached its most depraved level when he accused them of eating people's cats and dogs. In an instance of successful judicial resistance to would-be tyrant Trump, federal Judge Ana Reyes issued a temporary stay that prevents Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, from implementing her decision to remove the status known as TPS, which was scheduled to expire on Tuesday.

The protest was timed for maximum visibility during the afternoon commute on Montgomery Street, colloquially known as "Wall Street West." The over fifty demonstrators held a rally, distributed flyers to passing cars and trucks and received considerable honking support.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 340,000 Haitian TPS holders expires on February 3rd. It has already been terminated for refugees from Venezuela and Somalia, and is in danger of being terminated for refugees from Myanmar's repressive military regime and others. Unless the motion for a stay is granted on Feb. 2nd, Haitians could lose their work permits and face ICE deportation thugs starting Feb. 4.

TPS is supposed to protect people from returning to unsafe conditions in their home countries. Since the 2004 US-orchestrated coup against the democratic government of President Aristide, Haiti has been completely destabilized under US/UN occupation. A current US State Department travel advisory even warns, “Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care.”

In today’s Haiti, paramilitary death squads armed with weapons from the United States control large parts of the country, burning, raping and terrorizing the population. Over half the population - 5.7 million Haitians - are facing acute food insecurity; 1.4 million are internally displaced due to violence. This is the situation Donald Trump and Kristi Noem want to force hundreds of thousands of Haitians to return to. Ending TPS for Haitian refugees is just as much a violent attack on human rights as brutal ICE raids across the US. It's a matter of life and death.

See all high resolution photos here.