To the editor: The feedback by former President Trump and his operating mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), about Haitian immigrants consuming pets have an extended and sordid historical past. (“Trump’s Haitian immigrant comments stir outrage in Florida,” Sept. 13)
It’s true that Haitians have a tendency to not like canine, which had been used as slave-catching instruments throughout the colonial interval. However they don’t eat them.
Within the U.S., pets are surrogate folks, thus these fashionable narratives may very well be seen as variations on rumors that Haitians had been cannibals — allegations that despatched a bunch of girls to their loss of life throughout the 1864 anti-superstition marketing campaign in Haiti. Accusations of cannibalism additionally fueled the “civilizing mission” of African colonialism and slavery, in fact.
Allow us to not neglect that Haitians have lengthy been singled out for uniquely subhuman therapy amongst asylum seekers. They had been the primary group to land in detention facilities once they had been falsely accused of bringing AIDS to the US. In 2019, there have been pictures of Haitians crossing the U.S.-Mexico border being herded by Border Patrol brokers on horseback wielding their reins as whips.
Feedback by Trump and Vance about Haitians consuming pets will not be harmless and needs to be referred to as out for what they’re: anti-Black racism.
Lauren Derby, Santa Monica
The author is a professor of Latin American historical past at UCLA.
..
To the editor: The explanation why Trump retains going again to immigration many times is easy — to create a divisive, fearful wedge in an election 12 months.
As an immigration legal professional, I can say that, whereas neither Democrats nor Republicans are framing our issues nicely, Trump’s rhetoric is especially distortive and unrealistic.
His risk of mass deportation of the U.S.’ estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants (and even of a small proportion) is an impossibility. The domino results to American society, our authorized system and the financial system could be huge, with vital human struggling alongside the way in which.
For greater than 25 years, Democratic and Republican presidents have pushed exhausting for complete immigration reform however failed. It’s a legislative unicorn. The one answer is to take a piecemeal method specializing in border safety first.
That is precisely what the Border Act of 2024 would have performed. Sadly, Trump undermined the invoice’s passage and, with it, an actual first step towards a complete answer.
Brad Brigante, Pasadena
..
To the editor: Trump’s repeated, shameless lie about Black immigrants from Haiti consuming pets has been acquired variously by totally different folks. Some see it as true as a result of their chief mentioned so, some see it ridiculous, and others have seen it as an try and scare xenophobic voters who’re even “mildly” racist.
In fact, Haitian People see this as insulting and horrifying. However there’s one other group to think about: American Jews, who’ve seen Trump’s inclusion of antisemites into his interior circle.
This lie, that the “different” is killing and consuming the one that you love, is a brand new model of the “blood libel” that Jews kill Christian kids to eat their blood. This was used to inspire European Christians to kill Jews.
This terrifies me, and it ought to terrify all People.
Richard Merel, Hermosa Seashore
