YEAR IN REVIEW
MAY
In early May, the Joe Biden
administration reaffirmed its
“unwavering commitment”
to work with the 14-member
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
group of nations.
A White House statement
said National Security Advisor
Jake Sullivan spoke with then
CARICOM Secretary General
Irwin LaRocque and leaders
from the CARICOM memberstates.
The White House said the
Prime Minister and Foreign
Minister of St. Vincent & the
Grenadines and foreign ministers
from Antigua & Barbuda,
the Bahamas, Belize,
Dominica, Grenada, Guyana,
Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts &
Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad
& Tobago, along with the Permanent
Secretary of Barbados
and the Premier of Monserrat,
participated in the call.
In mid-May, the clergy and
other leaders of the Caribbean
American Community in
New York hosted a “Candles
& Roses” memorial service to
honor the victims of the COVID
19 pandemic.
According to the Rev. Gilford
T. Monrose, the St. Croix,
United States Virgin Islands
(USVI)-born president of the
Brooklyn Center for Quality
Life, the memorial service, at
the Bethesda Healing Center
Church in Brooklyn, commemorated
Caribbean Americans
and others who lost their lives
to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also in May, four United
States congressional representatives
announced the formation
of the House Haiti Caucus,
saying that the caucus
will work towards addressing
serious issues plaguing the
French-speaking Caribbean
country.
They comprised Clarke, the
daughter of Jamaican immigrants,
who represents the
9th Congressional District in
Brooklyn; Val Demings, of Florida’s
10th District; Andy Levin,
of Michigan’s 9th District; and
Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts’s
7th District.
The congressional representative
said there is no excuse to
repeat past mistakes, stating
that they will, instead, “lift and
listen to the Haitian voices that
must shape a democratic future
that will serve all of Haiti’s people,
not the few.”
Later in May, the Joe Biden
administration announced a
new 18-month designation of
Haiti for TPS.
Secretary of US Homeland
Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas
said that the new TPS designation
enables Haitian nationals
– and individuals without
nationality who last resided in
Haiti – currently residing in
the United States, as of May 21,
2021, to file initial applications
for TPS, “so long as they meet
eligibility requirements.”
Stating that America’s diversity
is and always has been the
defining strength of the nation,
President Biden proclaimed
June National Caribbean-
American Heritage Month.
“In every generation, our
society, spirit and shared ambitions
have been refreshed
by wave after wave of immigrants
seeking out their
American dream,” said Biden
in a White House Proclamation.
“Throughout our history,
Caribbean Americans have
brought vibrant cultures, languages,
traditions and values
that strengthen our country
and add new chapters to our
common story.”
Caribbean Life, Dec.14 31,2021-Jan. 6, 2022
JUNE
In early June, Clarke and the
Pan American Health Organization
(PAHO) welcomed Biden’s
vaccine distribution to Caribbean
and other countries.
The US said it planned to
send the first tranche of 25 million
doses, including 19 million
procured through COVAX, to
countries around the world.
This included “Approximately
6 million for South and Central
America to the following countries:
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador,
Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala,
El Salvador, Honduras, Panama,
Haiti, and other Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) countries,
as well as the Dominican
Republic,” the White House
statement specified.
A day after New York’s Primary
elections in June, victorious
Caribbean candidates
hailed the unofficial results,
with ranked-choice voting,
used for the first time in the
city’s elections, delaying the
official declaration of a winner
even up to mid-July, according
to New York City Board of
Elections.
Among the Caribbean winners
were New York Public
Advocate Jumaane Williams,
the son of Grenadian immigrants;
Haitian American New
York City Council Member
Farah N. Louis for the 45th
Council District; Haitian-born
Rita Joseph for the 40th Council
District; Crystal Hudson,
the daughter and granddaughter
of Jamaican immigrants,
for the 35th Council District;
and Haitian-born nurse Mercedes
Narcisse for the 46th
Council District.
Flanked by elected officials,
advocates and leading
immigration service providers,
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards, Jr. in June
cut the ribbon for Queens Borough
Hall’s new Immigrant
Welcome Center.
Richards, who traces his
roots to Jamaica, said more
than one-third of New York
City’s three million immigrants
reside in Queens, with nearly
50 percent of the borough’s 2.4
million residents born abroad.
Beginning with the Jun. 15
“soft launch” of the Immigrant
Welcome Center and continuing
into the future as capacity
and the variety of available
services expands, Richards said
families contacting or visiting
Queens Borough Hall will be
connected with comprehensive,
multilingual services, such as
legal assistance and referrals
to community-based organizations
and city services.
JULY
While expressing shock and
sadness, Haitian American legislators
in New York in early
July strongly denounced the
assassination of President Jovenel
Moïse, who was killed in
an attack on his private residence
on the suburbs of Portau
Prince, the Haitian capital.
Interim Prime Minister
Claude Joseph said in a statement
that Moïse’s wife, Martine
Moïse, was also shot in the
attack that involved a group of
assailants.
In the wake of the assassination
of Haitian President
Moïse and anti-government
protests across Cuba, United
States Secretary of Homeland
Security Mayorkas issued a
stern warning to Haitian and
Cuban migrants not to attempt
to come to the US.
Mayorkas told reporters,
during a press briefing, that
while the Biden administration
supports the people of Haiti
and stands in solidarity with
the Cuban people, the United
States is closely monitoring
“any activity that may indicate
increases in unsafe and irregular
maritime migration in the
Florida straits.
“The time is never right to
attempt migration by sea,” he
said. “To those who risk their
lives doing so, this risk is not
worth taking. Allow me to be
clear: if you take to the sea,
you will not come to the United
States.”
AUGUST
In early August, Caribbean
American legislators in New
York joined other elected officials
in calling on New York
Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign
after a state investigation report
Haitian migrants arrive to the US.
found that the governor had
fostered a culture of workplace
misconduct and had sexually
harassed numerous women.
Congresswoman Yvette D.
Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican
immigrants, joined Democratic
members of the New
York congressional delegation
in renewing their call on
Cuomo to step down.
“Let me be very clear, I reiterate
my call for the governor
to step down and applaud
Attorney General (Letitia)
James for conducting such a
comprehensive investigation.
Full stop,” Clarke, who represents
the predominantly Caribbean
9th Congressional District
in Brooklyn, New York,
told Caribbean Life.
In mid-August, a Brooklyn
based umbrella organization
calling itself Guyanese
Organizations Against Racism
(GOAR), which comprises 25
groups in the New York tristate
area, hosted a massive march
and rally in Brooklyn against
alleged racism in Guyana.
The group had dubbed the
march and rally “Guyanese
Organizations Against PPP
Apartheid Governance, Racism
& Injustice”.
It said the events were part
of a series of activities it was
hosting, to draw wider public
awareness of alleged racism by
the incumbent People’s Progressive
Party (PPP) Government
in Guyana.
Later in August, United
Nations Secretary-General
António Guterres urged countries
to step up support to Haiti,
as the French-speaking Caribbean
country recovered from
a deadly earthquake under the
clouds of a tropical storm.
The 7.2 magnitude quake
struck southwestern Haiti, killing
more than 1,300 people.
Thousands of homes, as well
as hospitals, schools, churches,
bridges and roads, were either
damaged or destroyed, the UN
said.
Newly-installed New York
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced
in late August the selection of
Caribbean American New York
State Senator Brian Benjamin
for lieutenant governor.
Benjamin, 44, the son of a
Guyanese mother and Jamaican
father, previously served as
the New York State Senator for
District 30, which encompasses
Harlem, East Harlem and the
Upper West Side in Manhattan.
SEPTEMBER
On Labor Day, over two million
spectators and thousands
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