Born in Haiti with a heart defect, Brad Mertens Joseph is 6, has difficulty walking and is still in diapers.
His parents, accustomed to a dangerous nine-hour bus ride to see cardiologists in the country’s violent capital, had finally found a solution to their son’s medical ailment, caused by a hole in his heart.
It involved open-heart surgery in Akron, Ohio, arranged by a nonprofit.
Those plans collapsed this past week when President Donald Trump issued an order banning people from a dozen countries, including Haiti, who don’t already have valid travel visas, from entering the United States
“When I heard that, I was really upset, and I wondered, ‘What are we going to do?’” said the boy’s father, Dieudonné Joseph.
The Josephs are among the many Haitians who are caught in the middle of Trump’s travel ban. From young professionals to medical residents to longtime visitors whose visas had lapsed, Haitians are bracing for the consequences of having a lifeline abruptly cut.
With its proximity to Florida, a long history with the United States, and grave political and social upheaval, Haiti has strong family and economic ties with its northern neighbor. People have businesses in both countries, and most middle-class Haitians have close relatives in South Florida or New York.
The ban was the latest in a series of blows the United States has dealt to Haiti, a nation currently overrun by gangs and in the throes of a security crisis, and which is heavily dependent on international aid organizations and remittances from migrants in the United States.
More than 300 other Haitians, mostly children, are on waiting lists for surgery and are now unable to get treatment because they are barred from traveling to the United States, said Owen Robinson, the executive director of the International Cardiac Alliance, a nonprofit group based in the U.S. that arranged for Brad’s treatment in Ohio.
In announcing the ban, Trump said that he had decided to “fully restrict” people from Haiti because visitors from there overstayed their visas at least 25% of the time.
Trump’s proclamation said the secretary of state could issue travel waivers in cases that were in the “national interest” of the United States.
The State Department said in a statement that there could be case-by-case waivers but added that it would not “get into hypotheticals or specific cases about application” of the president’s order.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2025 The New York Times
