Haitian and Venezuelan community leaders condemned President Donald Trump’s newly announced travel ban policy that will impact hundreds of thousands of South Florida families with ties to both countries.
Trump, in a video message released Wednesday, revived a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries — including Haiti — would be banned from visiting the United States. Those from Cuba and Venezuela, along with five other countries, will face heightened restrictions to visit the U.S.
The ban takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m., a cushion that avoids the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when a similar measure took effect with virtually no notice in 2017.
READ MORE: Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the US. Here’s what to know
Trump, who signaled plans for a new ban upon taking office in January, appears to be on firmer ground this time after the Supreme Court sided with him.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, posting on X, said the ban “has racist undertones with the support of anti-Cuban politicians,” in reference to South Florida’s three Republican members of Congress.
“It damages personal, professional, academic, and cultural exchanges between the two countries,” he wrote.
In South Florida, home to the largest Haitian, Venezuelan and Cuban communities in the country, Trump’s announcement is being greeted with anger and distress.
Adelys Ferro, a Democrat who heads the nonprofit Venezuelan American Caucus, slammed Trump for closing the door on immigrants by imposing a discriminatory policy.
“This is not immigration policy,” she told WLRN. “This is white nationalism masquerading as immigration policy.”
“It’s no coincidence that all the countries included in this proclamation are Muslim countries, or Black or Latin countries,” she said.
In addition to Haiti, the new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Visitors from Cuba and Venezuela will experienced heightened restrictions, along with visitors from Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo and Turkmenistan.
Pierre Imbert, of Aventura, co-founder of the nonprofit Ayiti Community Trust, which promotes development projects in Haiti, said he hopes the policy will be reviewed for Haiti due to the gang violence on the island nation.
“We’re appealing to our friends in the U.S government to understand the unfairness of this ban on 13 million Haitians — a largely peaceful population that are trying to maintain the lifeline between Haiti and the United States, when Haiti is still listed as a friendly neighbor country,” said Imbert, who travels frequently between Haiti and the U.S.
Imbert spoke to WLRN from Boston at the annual Haiti Funders Conference on development projects — and which includes people traveling from Haiti.
“It does nothing to make our communities safer, but it does vilify immigrants. It will devastate our immigrant families across this country.”U.S. Rep Maxwell Frost, D-Orlando.
University of Miami psychology professor Marie Guerda Nicolas, a Haitian-American and co-founder of the Ayiti Community Trust, like Imbert, also stressed that the Haitian travel ban will have negative consequences for Haiti’s already wrecked economy — especially for fledgling Haitian entrepreneurs who work with U.S. nonprofits like the Ayiti Community Trust.
“Those entrepreneurs are doing amazing work in Haiti to build businesses, which we are supporting from here in the U.S.,” she said. “And it’s extremely important for them to have the opportunity to travel to the United States for the purpose of business development and training, and even trade relations if they hope to export. Now they’re unable to do that, and I don’t understand how that helps either them or the U.S.”
In a statement issued Thursday, U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Orlando, called Trump’s travel ban “cruel, inhumane, and rooted in bigotry.”
"It does nothing to make our communities safer, but it does vilify immigrants,” said Frost, who is of Puerto Rican and Haitian descent. “It will devastate our immigrant families across this country — especially the thousands of Cuban, Venezuelan, and Haitian families who call Florida home.”
Ban tied to Boulder terror attack
In a video released on social media, Trump tied the new ban to Sunday's terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a tourist visa.
Trump said some countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of visa overstays of tourists, business visitors and students who arrive by air and sea, singling out countries with high percentages of remaining after their visas expired.
“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” he said in his proclamation.
'Cruel and xenophobic policy'
Miami-Dade Commissioner Marleine Bastien said Trump’s travel ban is “not only a cruel and xenophobic policy proposal — it is a blatant attempt to scapegoat an already suffering people.”
“This unjust policy will sow chaos in our communities, separating families, and disrupting lives,” she said in a statement.
“If Haiti is truly ‘unsafe,’ as President Trump now claims, then why did his administration terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitian nationals and cancel the [humanitarian] parole program for Haiti?” she said, rhetorically. “The contradictions in his statements highlight the lack of genuine concern for the Haitian people and reveal a disturbing pattern of punitive, anti-immigrant policies targeting Black and Brown communities.”
The Trump administration has gone to federal court to allow it to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, setting them up for potential deportation. It’s also sought to end TPS for Haitians and other immigrants as part of its aggressive deportation policy.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
