I was a precinct captain in 2000 and putting out GW Bush flyers in the neighborhood and met a Republican Haitian woman who owned a nearby business who was already going to vote for Bush.
That said, we never found out how Coco Higgins voted.
Posted on 10/14/2024 6:48:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Under the Biden administration, an unprecedented flow of 7 million migrants has entered the United States, through licit and illicit channels, including more than 1 million parolees. Several hundred thousand of those have come from Haiti.
Those Haitians have entered through a designated route: the parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV). The initiative, which the Biden administration enacted in October 2022 and recently declined to renew, allows individuals from those four countries to enter the United States for up to two years; for Cubans and Haitians, it also lets them collect welfare benefits, such as food stamps, cash assistance, and employment services. What began as a two-year parole program could, for many, turn into a longer stay, as the Department of Homeland Security announced in June that it would extend Haitians’ eligibility for Temporary Protected Status to February 2026.
The federal government runs a multibillion-dollar apparatus of government agencies, NGOs, and other institutions to settle the current wave of Haitian migrants in cities and towns across the country—including Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a small Rust Belt borough that has watched its demographics transform.
We spoke with many of Charleroi’s old residents and with some of the recent Haitian arrivals, including a man who asked to be identified only as Rene, out of fear of reprisal. Rene, 28, arrived in Charleroi at the beginning of this year. He was a truck driver in Haiti and has worked to integrate into American life.
But he also raised concerns: about exploitation, corruption, and the refusal of many Haitians to assimilate. Rene’s story reveals the fraught dynamics of migration and provides a vivid illustration of how the system works.
The following interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
City Journal: Can you walk us through the process of migrating from Haiti to the United States?
Rene: It’s called the Humanitarian Parole Program. My sponsor applied for me. My sponsor is my cousin’s husband. My cousin has been in the U.S. for about two years. He was living there legally before me. He went to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website and filed an application. He had to prove his income and an address to host me. The U.S. government knows everything about him through his Social Security number. He has a clean record. When I got approved, they sent me travel authorization documents in a PDF. It is pretty easy. It takes time to get approved; for some people, it can take a year. It took me six months to get approved.
But some people manage to leave without going through the airport. They cross the border of the Dominican Republic and from there, they leave the country. Once they’re in the Dominican Republic, I’m not sure how they leave, but I think some people do manage to come to the U.S. that way.
City Journal: And what happens when you arrive? How did you get to Charleroi?
Rene: I paid for my own plane ticket to New York City, and my cousin picked me up. I came to the country basically with nothing. When I got here four days later, I went to the DHS office to get government assistance, like food stamps.
I had to wait two and a half months to get my work authorization card, which is required if you’re an immigrant and want to work in the U.S. I had to pay $410 for it, but they raised the price and now you have to pay $470.
Once I got my work authorization card, I started working at Fourth Street Foods in Charleroi, through Celebes Staffing Services. A friend who had worked for them before told them I was looking for a job. Because I speak a little bit of English and I know computers, I wasn’t an assembly line worker. I was doing a job called “paperwork” and then I had to work on the computer. And then after that, I was a supervisor. I wasn’t working directly with the company. My paychecks came from Celebes.
City Journal: What was it like working at the facility?
Rene: There’s two Fourth Street Foods facilities, a north plant and a south plant, both in Charleroi. I worked at the north plant, which had around 250 to 280 employees—not including the Americans in the office. I’m talking about the assembly line workers.
I think room one had 60 people and they were all from different agencies. I can be working for Celebes and the person next to me could be working for Wellington Staffing Agency. So you never know how many people are from which agency. It is not only Haitians working there; there are also Asians and Africans. But the Americans, they work in the offices.
Assembly line workers only got $10 an hour, but they recently raised it to $12. In my jobs, I started at $10, then $11.75, and finally $16 an hour when I became a supervisor. I worked there for about 2 months.
We worked in the freezer. If you’ve been to Charleroi, you will see a lot of people in high temperatures wearing coats. Fourth Street Foods does not provide coats. We had to buy our own.
It’s not an easy job, working in the cold. If you cannot work the hardest you can, you’ll get fired so they can get better workers. Fourth Street Foods is not for the weak. You can’t work, you go home. Pretty simple and easy to get fired.
Fourth Street Foods needs these immigrants because they accept any treatment. The company knows that it can use them because they don’t know their rights. It’s sad.
City Journal: What was your experience with the staffing company?
Rene: The staffing agency took money from our wages. If the real rate was $16 an hour, they might take $4, saying it was for transportation and to run the agency. And they give you the rest of the money.
It would be much better to just apply directly to the company, but they make a business out of it. I don’t think $10 or $12 an hour is enough. It would be more if we worked directly with the company, but these agencies are somehow making some money out of their employees and it seems like it benefits the company, too.
It wasn’t enough money. I was just doing it temporarily. I didn’t want to just sit at home and do nothing. I was going to do it until I found something better.
Fourth Street Foods should stop using agencies and let people work directly with the company. No one provided a contract or any documents, which is why I wanted to quit so badly. I needed proof of employment or income to get a loan to buy a car and they couldn’t give it to me.
The agency business is suspicious. Some agencies are trying to compete with others to get more workers so they can get more money. From my second week working for them, I knew something wasn’t right. They call you an employee, but they can’t give you proof of employment. That’s not fair. I’ve even heard scary stories, like people getting shot in this business.
City Journal: You must be referring to the murder of Boyke Budiarachman two years ago, who was allegedly killed by a hitman hired by his competitor, Keven Van Lam. The motive for the crime appears to be business rivalry, following Budiarachman’s sale of his staffing company that supplied workers to Fourth Street Foods.
Rene: Yes, I had heard that but didn’t know the names. Fourth Street used to hire workers under the table, but the authorities cracked down on that. Now you need a work card and Social Security number. I tried to work for them before I had my work card, but they wouldn’t let me. (Fourth Street Foods denies having hired workers under-the-table.)
City Journal: And after you left Fourth Street Foods, where did you go?
Rene: I work at an Amazon warehouse now, making $19.25 an hour. When I started earning more, I informed the public benefit office and stopped receiving government assistance.
I’m in a three-bedroom apartment with five people, including my cousin. Rent is around $800 to $850, not including utilities.
It was harsh in Haiti. There’s a lot of crazy stuff that happened. The gang stuff. A lot of madness. I had never thought about leaving Haiti, but since all the crazy stuff started happening there, I changed my mind. As a truck driver, I was making good money by Haitian standards, but the insecurity made me leave. It’s much better here.
I’m only here for two years. I don’t know if the program I’m in will get renewed. But for now, I know I’m here for two years.
City Journal: Some people in Charleroi have expressed concerns that many recent Haitian migrants are not interested in assimilating. What is your perspective on that?
Rene: Some Haitians are acting bad or weird. Some Haitians that came here were from the countryside. There is a lot of things about living in the city they’re not too familiar with. It’s a big cultural change.
I can say that I’m a little educated but most of the other Haitians aren’t, especially the ones that came from Chile or Brazil and had to walk through 13 or 14 South American countries to come here. They’re all “country” and don’t trust white people because they say white people are racist and don’t like them. They don’t want to talk to white people. I’ve seen people work at Fourth Street for two years and still not speak English or understand the traffic signs and traffic laws. Many Haitians fail their driver’s test here. Some of them blame racism for why they keep failing their driving test. So they go to Florida to get their driver’s license. Maybe it’s easier to get in Florida than here.
I’m not mad at Americans. I’m frustrated with myself, my people, my government, and our politicians.
I wonder if Rene is registered to vote.
I remember Tommy Lee Jones in the fugitive. “I don’t care”.
I’m not mad at Americans. I’m frustrated with myself, my people, my government, and our politicians.
________________________
I am not mad at illegal immigrants. Just leave, and obey our laws or be deported. There was no legal authority for them being brought/coming here.
Here is the problem. I know Haitian immigrants who came here legally who came here legally and are hard workers and devout Catholics. They are improving the rundown neighborhood where they live. But, as always with Biden, he opens the floodgates and lets in everyone with no control and no plan. That is the problem.
I was a precinct captain in 2000 and putting out GW Bush flyers in the neighborhood and met a Republican Haitian woman who owned a nearby business who was already going to vote for Bush.
That said, we never found out how Coco Higgins voted.
I don’t care if they’re mad. That’s irrelevant. Mad or not they must go.
F you. Go back where you belong.
“What began as a two-year parole program could, for many, turn into a longer stay, as the Department of Homeland Security announced in June that it would extend Haitians’ eligibility for Temporary Protected Status to February 2026.”
Gee, what a surprise!
Anybody really believe they’ll be sent back in 2026?
The plan was always for them to stay....and vote.
Am I supposed to care if this invader is mad at me?
Don’t worry, Rene - your kids will assimilate. They’ll suck up that thug culture like vacuum cleaners. Way, way too much bad influence in that part of town.
Me neither. And I'm not against immigration, but we need a sane and orderly system instead of what Biden/Harris and the Democrats have given us.
The illegals work for slave wages, supplying to corporate America, taking jobs from Americans. The plant in Ohio, for example, makes prepared food for Starbucks and Walmart
They get subsidized by Fed.gov / taxpayers for welfare, food stamps, medicaid, sec. 8 housing, etc. etc. The Gov’t funded NGO’s walk away with $millions.
So who benefits? Leftist corporate cronies - and their BILLIONAIRE owners.
This while victims of Hurricane Helen are ignored by FEMA and the US Government.
From a volunteer doing search and rescue, going on wellness checks to remote areas, and coordinating supply relief:
"FEMA and the Federal Government have left flood victims behind to fend for themselves in the chaos of the flood waters. Disorganized relief efforts with no centralized command.
Reflecting on time in Asheville to help out victims of Hurricane Helene:
1. Very disorganized, poor intel, lack of centralized command connecting churches, volunteers
2. Overwhelming zeal by volunteers to get stuff done
WHY?
The company which sent him to the food place where he worked sounds like a temp agency. Are their “employees” legally considered employees or contract workers?
I know since they are not employees of the company where they do the work that that place is not obligated to treat them as employees, but what about the worker-providing company?
Did you read where he states he knows he is her only for two years? I guess you didn’t. Oh and he is working. He also was honest about his earnings so he was taken off any assistance. Immigrants like him I don’t mind. He is truly grateful for being in the U.S. and agrees to go by the rules.
He states very clearly he is not mad at the U.S.
Why as in “Why in the first place?” or Why as in “Why was it not renewed?”
If it is the first I think it was most likely because of the system of government of those countries.
As to the non-renewal maybe Biden believes the current system of government is just peachy keen and those places are now a bit of paradise.
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