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The Supreme Court allowed President Trump to revoke the legal status that has allowed 350,000 Haitians to live and work in the U.S., status they received because of dangerous conditions in Haiti. The administration says Haiti is safe enough to return to, but in court, Haitians argued racism motivated the decision. They are now coping with the court's rejection of that claim. NPR's Adrian Florido reports.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: Over the years, President Trump has said many denigrating things about Haitians, including this about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating the pets of the people that live there.
FLORIDO: At the Supreme Court, lawyers for Haitians in the U.S. on temporary protected status, or TPS, argued these and other comments were proof the administration's decision to revoke TPS for Haitians was motivated by racism. Guerline Jozef runs the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a San Diego group that advocates for Haitian immigrants.
GUERLINE JOZEF: Haitians who are eating your pets has continued to be the narrative when it comes for Black people. Be afraid of Black people because they are going to steal your X, Y and Z. Therefore, we have to make sure they are no longer a part of our community.
FLORIDO: The Constitution prohibits government discrimination based on race, so the court had to decide - did race likely motivate the decision to end TPS for Haitians? In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said no. Trump's remarks, he wrote, were not overtly racial. In a dissent, Justice Elena Kagan said Trump's remarks were full of racial stereotypes and gave more examples of what he said - that Haiti is filthy, that Haitians in the U.S. probably have AIDS. The conservative majority's rejection of the racial animus claims and its ruling that courts have no say in the executive's TPS decisions mean ICE agents could soon start rounding up Haitians en masse.
JOSIANE VALSAINT: It's like they treat us like we're not human.
FLORIDO: Josiane Valsaint Is one of the TPS holders about to lose her status. She's proud to be Haitian and had hoped the court would repudiate the president's attacks as racist. That it did not messed with her mind, she says.
VALSAINT: Even though I know I'm not that, but I said, wait a minute. Maybe what he said is true, because why they don't want us here while we are, like, working, paying tax, doing the right thing?
FLORIDO: Another woman, Promise, asked me to use only her first name because she fears being detained by ICE. She avoids going out because of that.
PROMISE: (Speaking Creole).
FLORIDO: But also because the government's narrative about Haitians has made her worry about how people will treat her if they learn she is Haitian. Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance says this is common. To protect themselves when they go out, some Haitian immigrants have felt compelled to lie about where they come from.
JOZEF: Are you Haitian? Maybe I don't answer at all, or I could say I'm Black. This - I'm Cuban. I'm, you know, anything but Haitian.
FLORIDO: It's been hard for her to watch these ruptures form in a proud community.
JOZEF: The level of degradation of a human spirit. That is what we have experienced and that is what we are witnessing today.
FLORIDO: Her group is now asking Congress to step in to protect Haitian TPS holders, but it is also helping people prepare in case ICE agents show up at their homes. Many Haitians, like Beatrice, are finding strength in identity and in Haiti's proud history as the world's first Black republic and the first nation to abolish slavery. Beatrice, a U.S. citizen, asked that we withhold her last name because her sisters have TPS.
BEATRICE: Whatever the president or the Supreme Court say, it will never break us. Together, we stronger. That's us. Haitian. Beautiful people.
FLORIDO: She hopes other people will take the time to see that. Adrian Florido, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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