Haitian community speaks out following recent ICE arrests in San Diego and across the US
Just days after U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a Haitian student near San Diego City College, the Haitian community made their voice heard through peaceful protest Thursday.
They were accompanied by dozens of people who support their cause, gathered outside the San Diego Immigration Court downtown.
“We’re sending a strong signal to ICE, DHS — hands off of our community,” Wister Gaetan said.
He’s cofounder of Haitian Bridge Alliance, a nonprofit community organization which advocates for fair and humane immigration policies for those who need it.
Gaetan said ever since a June Supreme Court ruling allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, fear has washed over their community.
“It’s terrifying, it is heartbreaking,” he said.
TPS allows people to live and work in the United States when conditions in their home country prevent them from returning.
“Mothers are afraid to drop their kid at school, children cannot go to school, parents cannot leave their house to get basic necessities for their American children,” Gaetan said.
Willia Caillo is a mother of three; that includes a 3-week-old son.
Her husband was arrested by ICE in City Heights when the baby was just a week old, back on Aug. 28. It left her alone with the children.
She was at Thursday’s rally.
“He’s the one who drives the car. But I don’t have anyone to take me to buy things,” she told KPBS in Spanish, with her newborn in her arms. “I’m scared, too. I just stay inside. I’m not taking my son to his doctor’s appointment.”
Immigration attorney Wismick Saint-Jean said what’s happening now by immigration enforcement is unconstitutional.
“When someone has asylum pending, when somebody comes here to seek asylum they cannot be deported until there is a final decision being made on their asylum cases by a judge,” he said. “So to that extent Haitians who have TPS who have been detained, those detentions are illegal.”
Saint-Jean said the Haitian community is being hunted down.
“What I’m hoping will take place right now is ICE to put a foot on the break, put a pause on this mass arrestation being done in the Haitian community. I think it’s harmful what they’re doing,” Saint-Jean said.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said that the Haitian student arrested near City College will have all his claims heard “by an immigration judge, and he will receive due process.”
Saint-Jean said “If due process is not reasonable, if it is insignificant, then it’s not due process at all.”
Haiti remains under a Level 4 – Do not travel advisory from the State Department due to the “risk of crime, kidnapping, terrorism, unrest, and limited health care.”
The country has been under a national state of emergency since March 2024.
Meanwhile in San Diego, KPBS has previously reported there are thousands of Haitians in limbo, after losing TPS.