Nativists Stewing Over Refuge for Haitians
Some nativists are riled up about the Obama administration鈥檚 recent decision to give temporary refuge to undocumented Haitian immigrants.
Their anger comes after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced on Jan. 15 that Haitians who were in the United States on the day of the earthquake may apply to stay here legally for 18 months. The government sometimes grants 鈥渢emporary protected status鈥� (TPS) to undocumented immigrants whose home country has suffered a trauma of such magnitude that they cannot immediately return. Even Mark Krikorian, executive director of the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, was quoted in The Washington Post as saying that he felt TPS was 鈥渢otally justified in this case,鈥� though he took issue with the renewals of TPS that often occur.
But others weren鈥檛 nearly so charitable. The white nationalist hate site Vdare.com featured a Jan. 21 column by titled 鈥淗aitian Immigrants Pretty Useless聽 鈥� But Haiti Still Needs Them More Than We Do.鈥� Rubenstein, an economic consultant and regular contributor, suggested that the administration鈥檚 decision was part of a 鈥渓ongstanding but little known Obama goal鈥� to increase Haitian immigration. After unfavorably comparing Haitian immigrants to European immigrants and non-Hispanic American whites, he insisted that he only had Haiti鈥檚 best interests at heart. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 so generous about stealing the very few educated leaders that this pitiful country has been able to produce?鈥� he concluded.
, who leads the anti-immigrant hate group American Border Patrol, usually complains about immigrants from Mexico. But he took on Haitians in a Jan. 19 online feature titled 鈥淭he Haitian Exodus: Obama Will Flood Our Bankrupt Cities,鈥� suggesting a la Rubenstein that the decision is part of a larger plan to boost Haitian immigration. 鈥淎ll indications are that the Obama administration is going to game the system to allow hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million Haitians into the United States,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淭he first step was granting temporary protected status (TPS) to up to 200,000 Haitian illegal aliens.鈥� Spencer did note the importance of donating money for Haiti, so long as it went toward helping them in Haiti, not in the United States.
The European American Unity and Rights Organization, founded by former Klan boss David Duke, dropped any pretense of compassion in a blatantly racist Jan. 23 web posting that predicted the Haitians would be allowed to stay permanently: 鈥淚f America fills up with Third World people and we turn into yet another Third World nation too poor to do anything, who is going [to] rescue the non-Whites then? Flooding America with non-Whites will destroy our economy, and Third World nations hit with future disasters will be lucky to get a third of the help that they are getting right now thanks to the United States with its White majority.鈥�
Stormfront.org, the leading white supremacist Web forum, had several vicious postings from white supremacists upset with the decision to offer TPS to Haitians. 鈥淸T]hey fully intend to give these animals a path towards citizenship even as they import more of these savages,鈥� wrote 鈥淢yselfMia鈥� on Jan. 16.
White supremacists were spewing venom about the Haiti tragedy even before then, however. Two days after the Jan. 12 earthquake that left more than 150,000 dead, Hatewatch from the far right, including neo-Nazi Billy Roper鈥檚 assertion that Haitians should be castrated.
