Haitians were subjected to degrading racist attacks by President Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential election, when he spread false rumors about them eating pets in the Ohio city of Springfield.
Now, they face the reality of deportation and restrictions under his administration’s immigration crackdown.
While much of the focus has been on the impact on Latino immigrant communities, who have felt the immediate effects of Trump’s presidency, other immigrant communities in New Jersey are also being impacted. The latest move came Thursday, when the Trump administration cut the duration of deportation protections and work permits for 521,000 Haitians in the country.
The state’s Sudanese, Chinese and Indian residents are also anxious, according to interviews with local leaders and activists. Across communities, families are worried about being split up; some, including those here legally, are contemplating leaving the U.S., advocates said.
Feb 8, 2025; Passaic, NJ, USA; A march in Passaic to protest recent ICE raids and arrests, and to call for protections for immigrants.
Among New Jersey’s 69,000 Haitians, some are worried about their future after Trump’s executive order ending a “humanitarian parole” program that allowed people fleeing war, natural disasters or other hardships into the country.
“They followed the program; they followed the guidelines. But because of a change in administration, what they thought was legal has been deemed illegal,” said Bergson Leneus, the first Haitian American to serve on the East Orange City Council and a board member with the National Haitian American Elected Officials Network. “Now, they are in the process of being deported.”
Leneus said he knew of two New Jerseyans affected by the end of the program who have been detained.
Ana Paola Pazmino, executive director of the Princeton-based Resistencia en Accion New Jersey, which organizes migrant communities, said Haitians who reside in Central Jersey have felt the impact of federal efforts.
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She cited a new Resistencia en Accion board member, a Haitian woman living in Trenton, whose young daughter is still in Haiti. That’s because the girl can no longer enter the U.S. through the CHNV program, which was set up to allow people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to temporarily relocate for humanitarian reasons. The program was eliminated on Jan. 20, Trump’s first day in office.
“She was on the program for parole of a minor to come meet with her mom,” Pazmino said. “So, because of these new executive orders, it’s not possible anymore.”
The mother is “distraught,” she said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehend an undocumented migrant they were surveilling in Herndon, VA, Jan. 15, 2025.
Trump’s immigration executive order
In his “Securing Our Borders” executive order, Trump eliminated several programs, saying it was necessary because the U.S. had “endured a large-scale invasion at an unprecedented level” during the Biden administration. The order warned “potential terrorists, foreign spies, members of cartels, gangs, and violent transnational criminal organizations” were among those let into the country.
In the weeks since returning to office, Trump has implemented a series of measures, including increased raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, ordering the end of birthright citizenship and signing the Laken Riley Act, which requires immigration officers to detain undocumented immigrants who are suspected, arrested, charged or admit to committing certain crimes.
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Trump has said his actions are aimed at migrants with criminal records. Immigrant advocates in New Jersey and across the country say the moves have targeted legal residents as well and have have instilled fear across their communities.
Leneus said some Haitians who settled in New Jersey in recent years came after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country. They went to Central and South America before coming to the U.S. because of the humanitarian program. Now, they and their families face the prospect of being sent back.
“Many of our children who are in this predicament were born in Brazil or Guatemala or Venezuela. Because of their heritage and ethnicity, they would be repatriated to Haiti, where they probably have never been to,” Leneus said. Haitians “are nervous. Their social and emotional stability has been fractured into instability.”
NJ immigration attorney sees ‘absolute terror’
Rupal Parikh, an immigration attorney with an office in Montclair, said there is fear across immigrant communities in New Jersey, no matter their ethnicity.
“All of these communities are scared. I have had different clients over the last three weeks who have come in from many different places. Every single one of them in fear,” Parikh said. “There is absolute terror in these communities.”
Parikh recalled a client living in New Jersey who is originally from India who came to her office last week asking for advice about self-deportation − voluntarily leaving the country. The man said he wanted to save his family from being taken by ICE since he does not have legal status, though his wife and children do.
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“I asked, ‘Why would you do that?’ He said, ‘I’m scared. I’m absolutely scared.’ I told him, ‘You can’t come back in for at least 10 years,'” Parikh said. “His daughter is about to get married. His son’s wife is pregnant. So, you’re going to leave because of fear that they are going to get you and spend at least 10 years outside the United States and not be there for your children, grandchildren and your spouse.”
As of Feb. 3, ICE officers had made over 8,700 arrests nationwide, according to the federal Department of Homeland Security. However, some of these arrests have gotten attention for ensnaring people in the country legally. Last month, a U.S. military veteran was among those arrested in a raid on a fish market in Newark even after showing his military ID, Newark’s mayor said.
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What’s next for H-1B visa holders?
Parikh also cited fears among Chinese immigrants who have come to the U.S. on an H-1B visa. The visas allow businesses to employ educated foreign professionals and students in fields such as mathematics and medical sciences. More than 170,000 Chinese people live in New Jersey.
Trump expressed support for the program last year, but Parikh predicted the president’s policies would hurt Chinese people and others seeking H-1B status, noting Trump has shown a tendency to throw more roadblocks in front of immigrants seeking to come or stay in the U.S.
For example, the State Department recently changed the policy for people looking to renew expiring visas. The new rule makes it harder for those seeking to avoid an in-person review for renewal.
“Say, someone’s here on a H1-B. They’ve applied for a work permit for their spouse. What would take normally three months is now going to take eight to nine months,” Parikh said. “It’s going to cause distress and stress, and a lot of these people are saying ‘do we want to be in the U.S. now?'”
Will Trump end Green Card Lottery?
Dec 29, 2023; Jersey City, NJ, United States; Musab Ahmed, a Jersey City resident originally from Sudan where a civil war has killed thousands of people and displaced millions. Ahmed on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023.
Jersey City resident Musab Ahmed is a member of New Jersey’s small Sudanese community who is already worried about extended family members displaced by the civil war in his homeland. The conflict has killed almost 15,000 people and displaced over 8 million people from their homes.
Ahmed said he is also worried about the future of the diversity visa program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, which gives entrance to citizens from countries with low immigration rates like Sudan. During Trump’s previous term, many diversity visa applicants were refused due to his ban on individuals coming from Muslim-majority nations. Still, Trump never ended the program.
So far in his second term, he has not publicly announced changes to the Green Card Lottery. But one of his Republican allies, Georgia Congressman Mike Collins is the key sponsor of the Security and Fairness Enhancement for America Act of 2025, a bill that would end the diversity visa program.
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In a statement, Collins called the Diversity Visa Program “a needless exercise in government virtue signaling. We’ve opened our country up to an almost endless system of chain migration while throwing a dart at the globe and letting a faceless computer code determine a path to citizenship for 50,000 immigrants.”
Ahmed said Sudanese people like himself have another concern: being subjected to ICE raids at houses of worship, hospitals and other places; Trump lifted a prohibition that had kept ICE from targeting such “sensitive” sites. Ahmed said he and others in the U.S. legally are preparing for any potential encounters by carrying their passports and other papers at all times.
“Everyone who is not worried about being deported, but could be detained and questioned, they are thinking that they have to declare their legal status here,” Ahmed said. “We have to be ready.”
Advocates push Immigrant Trust Act for NJ
Immigrant advocates on Tuesday repeated a call for New Jersey legislators to pass the Immigrant Trust Act as soon as possible to help all immigrant groups in the state.
The legislation, introduced in September by Bergen County Democrats Gordon Johnson and Ellen Park, would limit New Jersey state and local agencies from sharing information with ICE. Supporters say it’s important to ensure immigrants feel they can trust local law enforcement.
Advocates visited the offices of lawmakers in all 40 legislative districts and implored them to pass the bill before the current session ends in June. At a virtual news conference, Erik Cruz Morales, policy and advocacy manager for the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, said the legislation is crucial during the Trump crackdown.
“These attacks that the Trump administration is doing are hurting families, they are separating families,” Cruz Morales said. “I think that the state has a responsibility to act and push back, and if not, what are they going to tell those families?”
Ricardo Kaulessar covers race, immigration, and culture for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
Twitter/X: @ricardokaul
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Trump immigration policies hit NJ Haitian, Chinese, Indian communities
