As America prepares to celebrate our 250th anniversary as a nation this coming weekend, the most visible symbol of our freedom — Lady Liberty holding her torch aloft in New York Harbor — is in mourning.The flame of liberty was dimmed last week when the Supreme Court, goaded by Donald Trump, ended protections for some 350,000 Haitians who have sought refuge on our shores from natural and manmade disasters in their island homeland.

The high court’s approval of terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians who fled deadly earthquakes and then widespread political and gang violence opens the door to another round of massive deportations and general harassment of communities of color by ICE agents.

Massachusetts is home to an estimated 60,000 Haitians, about 10,000 of whom reside here under TPS. While hundreds of millions of Americans gather on Saturday for Fourth of July barbeques, fireworks, parades and solemn reflections on the Declaration of Independence approved in Philadelphia in 1776, Haitians will be on alert, fearful of a knock on the door, armed agents coming to their workplace and detention teams combing business districts like Mattapan Square and downtown Randolph for Creole accents.

For African Americans, the promises of liberty were circumscribed from the start by slavery, racism and exploitation. Efforts to redeem the principles of equality enshrined in the Declaration have made Black America fuller partners in our experiment in democracy. Those halting steps, however, have run into obstacles thrown up by the Trump administration to erode voting rights, equal employment protections, economic gains and cultural advancements to highlight the historically overlooked role of Blacks in the American story.

The withdrawal of TPS is not just another reversal — it’s a violation of the spirit of Lady Liberty and the Emma Lazarus poem mounted in bronze on her pedestal: “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, home to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” The depth of President Trump’s vile disdain for immigrants of color in general and Haitians in particular has been evident for years. His embrace of white South Africans as refugees from violence while blocking the emigration of Black Africans is just the latest sign of his animus. So is his regret that “Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden?”

Writing for the majority in the 6-3 court decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. laughably glossed over the question of whether Trump’s past statements about Haitians were “overtly racial,” saying that race was not likely a motivating factor in the decision to end protections. That prompted liberal Justice Elena Kagan to object in her dissent, criticizing Alito for failing to quote a single example of Trump’s statements about Haiti and Haitians. So, she decided to do the job for him, citing quotations calling Haiti “a shithole country” that is “filthy, dirty, disgusting”; saying Haitians “probably have AIDS”; accusing Haitians in Ohio of “eating the pets” of their neighbors; and that Haitian immigration is “poisoning the blood” of our country.

“The references,” Kagan wrote, “of filth, disease and primitiveness are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes.”

The termination of TPS for Haitians and Syrians follows a pattern of withdrawal for non-white immigrants from a dozen other countries — Nepal, Burma, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Cameroon, Nicaragua, Honduras and Venezuela.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, co-chair of the House Haiti Caucus, has long been critical of Trump’s deportation schemes and blasted the administration in the wake of the June 25 Supreme Court ruling, which she called “a rubber stamp for a cruel and callous administration that seeks to separate families, traumatize children, profit off their pain and deport them even though they did nothing wrong and committed no crime.”

Pressley successfully led efforts to extend TPS in a House vote and Sen. Ed Markey sponsored similar legislation in the Senate measures made moot by the court decision.

The humanitarian impact of TPS termination will leave families and communities torn apart. It will also have a devastating impact on the economy, especially in the health care sector, where thousands of Haitians work in elder care facilities, hospitals, and home care settings. In the years since the 2010 earthquake sent thousands of Haitians to seek shelter in the United States, families have put down roots, built businesses, paid taxes and filled important roles in the local economy. Returning to a country with lethal levels of gang violence and political oppression would deny our communities the vitality of immigrant striving.

In Springfield, Ohio — the municipality where Trump falsely claimed Haitians were eating pets — the influx of Haitians reversed a long trend of depopulation and a downward spiraling local economy. As in Boston, South Florida and New York City — where the nation’s largest Haitian diaspora communities exist — Haitian athletes have bolstered Springfield’s school teams, Haitian workers have filled factory and health care jobs and Haitian entrepreneurs have opened businesses.

Even Ohio’s conservative governor spoke out against the decision. “The policy to remove these individuals from the country is a mistake,” said Gov. Mike DeWine.

Don’t expect DeWine’s sentiments to be echoed by Republicans in Washington. They need red meat for their MAGA base in the November midterm elections. Trump’s unpopular war against Iran and rising prices caused by Trump tariffs and war-related roiling of energy markets threaten to overturn GOP dominance in the House and Senate. We can expect Black and brown communities to be subject to a new surge of media-ready crackdowns to spread the Trump doctrine.

As we gather this weekend to mark the birth of the United States, say a prayer for our country and hope for more enlightened leadership. And in the coming months, do what you can to make sure people get out and vote to change the leadership on Capitol Hill and limit the damage Donald Trump can do to our nation in his remaining time in office.

Ronald Mitchell
Editor and Publisher, Bay State Banner.