Families of Quebecois of Haitian origin who came to seek their family at Lacolle customs talk about a real race against the watch to flee the United States while Donald Trump threatens to hunt them.
• Read also: The trailers are back like Roxham’s time
Tuesday, in the parking lot of the St-Bernard hotel, very close to the border post of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, three small groups were waiting for family members initially refugees in the United States, who legally crossed the end of last week.
“People are hurrying to come to Canada because it cannot go back to Haiti and the United States is no longer security,” said Jean Garcia, a Montrealers who is himself of Haitian origin. Arrived in Quebec 31 years ago, he has been working for 25 years as a taxi driver.
He accompanied his cousin who came to get a nephew. The 20 -year -old fled the violence that rages in his country to take refuge in Boston with his mother.
The young man has crossed customs this weekend and has since been housed at the hotel, while his case is evaluated.
Despite the status of sanctuary city of the capital of Massachusetts, the Haitians are no longer safe in the south of the border, said Garcia.
Encore Trump
Because the American president threatens to send them home despite the terror caused by the gangs, since his Minister of Internal Security revoked the temporary protection status granted to Haitians (TPS) under the chairmanship of Joe Biden.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump
Photo AFP
The end date of this program was to be on September 2, but was postponed on February 3 by a New York judge, while internal security “strongly disputes this decision”.
Afraid
“Everyone is racing to get out of the United States before the end of TPS. In my opinion, in February, Ice [la police de l’immigration] will start to bang at the doors to find Haitians, ”worries Mr. Garcia.
According to the echoes he hears from the country of Uncle Sam, “unidentified ICE agents await people who come out of appointments with immigration and kidnap them”.
And impossible to return home since “Haiti, it has become a real hell”.