Rose Mingo-Holtz was preparing for a class at her French language school in Minnetonka when she heard the news from her husband: Republican vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance was circulating a rumor about Haitian immigrants eating pets.
Her first reaction was incredulity. But when she turned on the TV, and later saw people — including some of her followers — reposting the false claims on social media, she began to feel alarmed.
“To be honest, I am trying to keep my calm,” she said. “I started to worry and I don’t want to receive threats against the school.”
Mingo-Holtz, who founded Mes Amis French School in 2005, is one of approximately 4,000 Haitian Minnesotans. Many are here under temporary protected status (TPS) or humanitarian parole. Others are U.S. citizens.
All say the false rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, later amplified by former President Donald Trump, add to the stress and uncertainty they feel about their welcome here.
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“Personally, it traumatizes me,” said Florencia Pierre, a Haitian artist and community organizer based in Minnesota. “You feel that you always have to fight to be appreciated by others, you’re so stressed that you develop cardiovascular illnesses.”
Pierre, also called “Maman Fofo” in the community, moved to the U.S. after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. She joined her daughter, Djenane Saint Juste, who had left a few months earlier. Since then, the family has not been able to move back to Haiti because of the insecurity and political instability.
After the earthquake, the Obama administration granted TPS to Haitian nationals. Today, 200,000 Haitians live in the United States under TPS, a status that Pierre described as a limbo.
Every 18 months, her family has to pay and renew their protection and their eligibility depends on the will of the president. In 2017, Donald Trump paused TPS for nationals from Haiti, Nepal, Sudan, Nicaragua and El Salvador, but a federal judge blocked his plan.
“We are not moving forward,” Saint Juste said. “We have the security of not being kidnapped, but other than that, it is a tragedy. It is a constant traumatism.” After 15 years living in the U.S., Saint Juste was refused her green card application.
Black feminist theorist and writer Beaudelaine Pierre describes TPS as a “constant state of dispossession.” Previously a scholar at the University of Minnesota and now teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Pierre said immigrants not only have to pay to constantly renew their status, but they’re also separated from family.
“You cannot even go home,” Pierre said. “People on TPS can apply to travel outside the US, but it costs $600, and it comes six months after. That means many of us lose parents, lose fathers and mothers.” Without an authorization to leave the country, immigrants on TPS cannot return to the U.S.
Beaudelaine Pierre was not surprised by Vance and Trump’s claims. “What was said in the debate is a reflection of how Haitian folks are treated on an everyday basis,” she said.
She said the false claims about legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio reflect the anti-Haitian sentiment ingrained in U.S. institutions and imagery.
“Many Haitians know that whatever their level of integration is in the U.S., since 1804, following the independence of the country, they have been punished, systematically by the U.S. government, because of the fight for their freedom,” Pierre said.
Haiti was the first free Black republic in the Western Hemisphere and Pierre noted that slave owners feared that it would inspire other Black people during an era when slavery was still legal in the U.S.
Building community
In Minnesota, culture and tradition help the Haitian community persevere. Saint Juste funded the cultural organization Afoutayi, to celebrate Haitian culture, dance, music and fashion. “Maman Fofo” dances, acts, sews the clothing for Afoutayi and cooks for the community.
Every year on May 18, Saint Juste organizes the Haitian Flag Day celebration. The event started with only 10 people, and now more than 200 attend. But Afoutayi recently lost its lease and the community struggles to find spaces to come together, Saint Juste said.
Haitian community organizer David Policard noticed that the community was fractured because of the different waves of Haitian immigration. Newly arrived immigrants reach out to churches, Somali or Hmong organizations. But they often face language issues, as few people speak French or Créole.
Last week, Policard launched his organization Vanse, a platform to help Minnesota’s Haitians access jobs and services.
“When they come here, it is difficult to access higher-paying jobs that would allow them to progress out of poverty,” he said.
Policard enrolled his young son at Mes Amis French School. It is a space where the child can speak French, stay connected with his Haitian roots outside of home, and Mingo-Holtz sometimes talks to him in Créole as well.
“Beyond language, I wanted a school where he would be seen and treated as himself, not ‘othered,’” Policard said.
Vance and Trump’s racist claims have also reached schools, where Haitian children have been bullied. For Sainte Juste, there is a risk that some kids will later refuse to be associated with their Haitian identity because of this bullying.
Jude Vales is the principal at Adams Spanish Immersion School in St. Paul. He has not witnessed or heard any case of bullying in his school so far. Personally, he felt offended but not surprised by Vance’s claims.
“For many Haitians it wasn’t new, because we are used to inept, incompetent politicians,” said Vales. “Whenever there is an election, they use us as a scapegoat.”
Instead of providing solutions or policies, those politicians focus on race and target Black immigrants, Vales said. It is part of a white supremacist playbook, he said. Trump had previously targeted Haitians in the U.S., claiming that Haiti is a backward country and that Haitians have AIDS.
For Vales, the way to counter this narrative actually resides in schools. “The first way to be engaged is to get yourself educated, to educate children and make sure your children know their history, and also know the history of this nation which has become theirs as well.”
The other solution for him is to go to the polls next month and keep organizing.
Cynthia Tu contributed to the data reporting and analysis.
Correction: David Policard’s last name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.
