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Boston city councilors unanimously back the Haitians here because of 2010 earthquake

The Boston City Council voted unanimously today to tell the federal government to cut the nonsense and let Haitians here on "temporary protected status" visas stay here, because the awful conditions in their homeland that brought them here persist.

The visas expire in June and Haitian advocates worry the Trump Administration will not provide another 18-month extension as has been done in the past.

Council President Michelle Wu (at large) said the conditions that prevent the Haitians from returning to Haiti haven't changed - their country has yet to recover from the earthquake, suffered more damage during a hurricane last year and is now in the midst of a drought and epidemics of mosquito-borne zika and chikungunya.

In addition, she and co-sponsor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale) said, the roughly 4,000 Haitians in the Boston area who have these visas are hard working, pay more than $40 million a year in taxes - including for services they can't use, such as social security - and help Haiti recover through payments sent back home.

"What people have to understand is that the Haitian TPS holders are hard workers," McCarthy, whose district has a large Haitian-American and Haitian population, said.

Wu said she found it absurd that Trump officials have started asking questions ahead of a May 23 deadline for extending the visa on such things as how many of the Haitians receive public benefits such as Medicaid, since they are not eligible for it to begin with.

"Let's stand up for neighbors, our loved ones, our city," Wu said.

Councilor Josh Zakim (Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, Mission Hill), who chairs the council's human-rights committee, urged Bostonians to resist Trump-administration efforts to divide neighbors.

Councilor Andrea Campbell (Dorchester), whose district also has a large Haitian-American population, said Boston, which she said has always been a city of immigrants, should both send a message and take specific steps, such as ensuring that any Haitians potentially affected by whatever happens next week have access to legal services and advice on their rights.

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Read the City Stenographer Stenographic Record of Councilors' remarks re the Motions, Orders and Resolutions Docket #0730 Councilor Wu offered the following: Resolution urging the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haitian Nationals, email https://www.boston.gov/departments/city-council/michelle-wu

Each Councilors' take on the Resolution is worth reading, and following up with ideas, comment, suggestions, questions to a favorite Councilor's remarks.

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So is the city council going to write personal checks out of their obnoxious pay raise to cover the costs? What does the city council say to the unemployed poor competing against this foreign labor for jobs? Drop dead?

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a kid(s) on the honor roll. Apparently thats what's destroying this country...

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One of the great sketches depicted a Cape Verdean family, and one of the family members was mocked as lazy for having only two jobs. Then it was revealed that he was in 19 bands, so he actually had 21 jobs.

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I know plenty of Haitians as you describe, I also know plenty of Haitians that are drug dealers or credit card scammers.

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If they're in good standing as members of the community, we should not only let them stay, but also be helping them to get the full rights of citizenship.

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Temporary as in 7 years now? How many billions were give, raised? The country still can't get it together. I think temporarily permanent is more like it.

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How in the world are 4000 low-income workers paying 40 million worth of taxes every year?

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Egziste, oswa pa egziste, se kesyon an sa : si l pi onorab nan limenm pou sibi kout fistibal ak kout flèch Lachans atwòs voye sou ou, oswa pou pran lèzam kont yon lavalas pwoblèm, e nan fè opozisyon, met fen nan yo.

Hamlèt Prens Dànmak
Trajedi pa William Shakespeare
Tradiksyon an Kreyòl Ayisyen
pa Nicole Titus
Trilingual Press / Près Trileng
http://tanbou.com/trilingualpress/index.htm#Hamlet

see also Haitian Creole Month
https://archive.org/details/Haitian_Creole_Month

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