The trump administration plans to kick out a half million Haitians in Black August. The decision follows an earlier one by the oligarchy to send about 300,000 Venezuelans packing on April 2. The fact that these immigrants come from Black and Brown countries is not a coincidence. Other developing countries like El Salvador, Ethiopia and Nicaragua are also in the crosshairs. This is US-style ethnic cleansing.

The news that trump was revoking the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) for Haitians living in the United States came as no surprise. Haitians were targeted during his re-election campaign, specifically the Haitian community in Springfield, OH. Remember how trump mocked them for eating the cats and dogs of their neighbors. This is a vivid example of how a dictator takes a ludicrous accusation and twists it into a dangerous policy.

I thought about two things when I read about the latest TPS saga. The first was the horrifying reality Haitians will face if forced to return to their homeland. The second thought was of the wealthy white women on the Upper East Side begging their Congresspeople to exempt their Haitian domestic from being deported. New York City has the largest population of Haitians in the US. They can’t count on any support from Mayor Eric Adams. In exchange for making his federal indictments disappear, Adams will be trump’s accomplice in making Haitians disappear.

TPS was a designation created by Congress in 1990 to offer legal reprieve to those from other countries impacted by natural disaster, armed conflict or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” It should be seen as a form of reparations for victims whose country has been wrecked by US imperialism.

The application process is stringent but if nationals are approved, they can get work and build a life in a country that boasts of opening its shores to the tired, the poor and the huddled masses, “yearning to breathe free.” The words on the Statue of Liberty should be changed to read, “yearning just to breathe.”

It is important for those of us in this country to fully understand why people like the Haitians have to flee their homelands. It’s not a love for this flawed democracy; it is about survival. They are fleeing their homelands made dangerous and untenable by natural and man-made disasters. The instability and violence in countries like Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua can be attributed to US greed and its foreign policies.

The small island has been catching hell ever since it fought and won its independence in 1804. After France’s colonial subjugation ended, the US tagged in. These white colonizers reshaped the future of Haiti by manipulating the sovereign country’s economy and governance. The US is the main reason for the crippling destabilization and bloody violence that keeps Haiti from rising as a free, self-determining country.

The US occupation of Haiti was for the sole purpose of consolidating its financial and military dominance. To date, it has funded the violence of dictators like the Duvalier family. The CIA is responsible for the exiling and assassinations of Haitian leaders who don’t play the game of empire. US-based corporations engage in the brutal exploitation of Haitian workers, making sure the country remains the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

People in the US need to have some historical context for what is happening and be compelled to act. This current ethnic purging is an opportunity to ratchet up our efforts for principled Black-Brown unity. The necessary response must go beyond protests of the atrocities. The trump regime has made it clear that the US only has room for white people. People not like them will be accepted based on their loyalty to the empire. We who believe in humanity must organize to hold this government accountable for its past and present crimes. There will be no future where having white skin is the determinant for citizenship.