The message from this morning’s information session was simple: Haitians should file for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) held a briefing today to review the process of filing for TPS. Public officials, immigration attorneys and community advocates were on hand to reassure the Haitian community that it was safe to apply.

“We need to encourage families to do the right thing, to come forward. In the beginning, there was a lot of talk of the very real fears. But here we are 18 months later, 60,000 applicants have come forward,” said Eva Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “The power of advocacy is real.” Read more

I AM KREYOL Fundraiser
..for Boston Mothers Care & Physicians for Haiti
This event is a collaboration of talents, coming together for one common goal... LOVE = SERVICE

with Special Performances by: Read more

Urban Fresh presents
"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf"
at Hibernian Hall

Roxbury, MA. – Ntozake Shange's critically acclaimed play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf" makes its way to Hibernian Hall on June 17, 2011 at 8pm. Read more

Jocelyn McCalla

President Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly faces daunting challenges and high expectations as he prepares to preside atop a dysfunctional government. Amongt his challenges are a newly minted parliament that seeks to score high early on.

First, the positive: Martelly has staked part of the success of his administration on its ability to make primary school education universal and real. Few in Haiti believe that he can pull it off, given the costs of building an entirely new structure, the estimated 500,000 school children denied the opportunity since time immemorial and the paucity of trained teachers and school administrators. Yet education is perhaps the most effective weapon against chronic poverty and Haiti remaining an international charity case. By making schooling a priority, at the very least Martelly sends a strong signal that he’s willing to try.

However, meeting domestic and international expectations is another story. In principle, democracy disallows arbitrary rule, forcing the Executive to argue, battle and perhaps compromise with the legislature. While Haiti’s parliament appears to be dominated by INITE party members, in reality it is quite fragmented. The party was cobbled together in 2010 when then President René Préval was deemed to have the upper hand: many rent-seekers hedged their bet by running for office under INITE’s umbrella. They are likely to not act in unison but as an eclectic group of elected officials that will shift and play musical chairs in accordance with the prevailing winds. Read more

Patrick Sylvain

“The Haitian Revolution was accomplished on the one hand by slaves who were fighting primarily for the right to own themselves; and on the other by men, half free, who were contending primarily for the other half of freedom—their rights as French citizens. …They found themselves under the necessity of forming a political organization before they had grown into social being or had developed the consciousness of national life. Their consciousness was purely military, and the army was with them the nation.”
— Theophilus G. Stewart, 1914

The Haitian revolution, while notable for its accomplishment of defying the supremacy of racial injustice, also brought forth the notion that human beings should have the right to live as they so desire. It shattered the concept of total control imposed from without that had been situated within the European dominated system of Atlantic Slavery.

At the same time however, the Haitian revolution revealed the contradictions espoused by a systematically and brutally oppressed people who themselves sought power and self-rule. It clearly showed how the sword could serve as an instrument to both oppress and to liberate. Read more

The Patrick administration has opted against signing onto the federal Secure Communities initiative, citing a “lack of clarity” and inconsistent implementation of a national program that uses locally gathered fingerprinting information to verify the immigration status of those arrested in Massachusetts.

“The Governor and I are dubious of the Commonwealth taking on the federal role of immigration enforcement. We are even more skeptical of the potential impact that Secure Communities could have on the residents of the Commonwealth,” Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan wrote in a letter dated Friday to Acting Secure Communities Director Marc Rapp, informing the Department of Homeland Security that Massachusetts would not sign a memorandum of understanding for participation.

Since the start of the Secure Communities program in 2008, the information sharing capability between local law enforcement agencies and ICE has been expanded to 1,331 jurisdictions in 42 states. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 151,590 convicted criminal aliens have been booked into ICE custody through March 31, 2011, and 77,160 have been deported. Read more

TPS forum at HAPHI on May 23, 2011On Monday, the Association of Haitian Women in Boston (AFAB) helped to coordinate a forum about the recent Temporary Protected Status (TPS) extension granted to Haitians by the United States. A panel of public officials and immigration experts gathered at the new offices of the Haitian American Public Health Initiative (HAPHI) in Mattapan to present further details to the Haitian community about this extension. Panelists included Dennis Riordan from US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) , State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, Matt Maiona from American Immigration Lawyers Association and Carline Desire, executive director of AFAB.

On May 17, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced the extension of TPS for roughly 48,000 Haitian nationals who currently have the designation. The extension will be effective July 23, 2011 and allows Haitian beneficiaries to remain in the U.S. an additional 18 months - through Jan. 22, 2013. Read more

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Haiti's new president wants a business leader to serve as his prime minister, a government official said Sunday.

The official announcement that President Michel Martelly wants Daniel-Gerard Rouzier to be the country's No. 2 official comes one day after Martelly, a charismatic pop star known as ``Sweet Micky'', was sworn in as Haiti's next leader in back-to-back ceremonies at a makeshift Parliament and on the lawn of the National Palace, which collapsed in last year's crippling earthquake.

Parliament must still ratify Rouzier to the post. Read more

Bill ForryThe idea to spin off a specific English language newspaper in the Boston Haitian community was one that I had long cultivated as the editor of the Dorchester Reporter, which my parents founded in 1983. The Haitian paper was loosely modeled on the Boston Irish Reporter, which was launched in 1990 with a similar mission for the Irish-American community.

The Boston Haitian community, I felt, was poised to blossom over the next decade and it deserved a dedicated publication to chronicle its rise and a forum to discuss the complicated policy issues that were sure to develop along the way. Read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives asked the Obama administration Tuesday to come up with an accounting of how humanitarian and reconstruction aid is being spent in Haiti, which has been slow to recover from the devastating earthquake of more than a year ago despite an outpouring of U.S. and international assistance.

``The unprecedented relief effort has given way to a sluggish, at best, reconstruction effort,'' said Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, sponsor of the legislation requesting that President Barack Obama prepare a report within six months of the bill's enactment on the status of the aid campaign in Haiti, including the fight to combat an outbreak of cholera. Read more

Haiti School Fundraiser
Saturday, May 14
Event: 4:00p
Immaculate Conception Church
42 Green St., Newburyport, MA, 01950

IC Haiti, a non-profit organization for benefit of the people of Haiti, has announced the construction and on-going funding a new school in Haiti. Donations will be accepted at the IC Parish Church at each of the second collections for all of the masses on the weekend of Saturday, May 14th at 4:00 pm, and Sunday May 15th at 7:15 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:30 AM, 5:30 PM.

Saturday, May 21
Roll Up Your Sleeves for Haiti
Event: 9-6 p.m
Frank Jones Center
400 Route One By-Pass Portsmouth, NH 03801 Read more