Alabama Cities with Haitian Populations Learn from Springfield

Company, Al. — The transition from bustling Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to a small Alabama town on the southern edge of the Appalachian Mountains was a challenge for Sarah Jacques.

But within a year, the 22-year-old got used to sobriety and settled in. Jack gets a job at a factory that makes car seats, founds a Creole-speaking church, and comes to appreciate the comfort and security of life in Albertville after the political unrest and violence. His own country is tormented.

Recently, however, Donald Trump and his running mate began campaigning as Republican presidential candidates. Denies false information about Haitian migrants In Springfield, Ohio, causing crime and “eating pets,” says Jack, brings new and unexpected challenges.

“When I first came here, people waved at us, said hello to us, but now it’s not the same,” Jack said in Creole through a translator. “When people see you, they look at you like they’re either really nice to you or scared of you.”

Amid this growing tension, a bipartisan group of local religious leaders, law enforcement officials and residents across Alabama view Springfield's decline as a cautionary tale. They are taking steps to help integrate the state's Haitian population into the small towns where they live.

as Political unrest and violence With increasing intensity in Haiti, Haitian immigrants adopted a program Established by President Joe Biden in 2023 It allows the United States to accept up to 30,000 people per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years and provides work permits. The Biden administration recently announced that the program could allow about 300,000 Haitians to remain in the United States. At least until February 2026.

In 2023, there were 2,370 people of Haitian descent in Alabama, according to census data. There are no official estimates of the growth of the Haitian population in Alabama since the program was implemented.

The immigration debate is not new in Albertville, where the immigrant population has been growing for three decades, said Robyn Lathan, executive assistant to the Albertville mayor. Lathan said the city does not track how many Haitians have moved to the city in recent years, but said it “seems to have increased, especially in the last year.”

A representative for the Albertville school system said that last school year, 34 percent of the district's 5,800 students were learning English as a second language — compared to just 17 percent in 2017.

A few weeks ago in August, Springfield made national headlines. A Facebook post showing men getting off a bus to work at a poultry factory led some residents to speculate that the factory was hiring people living in the country illegally.

Representatives for the poultry plant told The Associated Press in an email that all of its employees are legally authorized to work in the United States.

The uproar culminated in a public meeting where some residents sought clarity about a federal program that allows Haitians to work legally in Alabama, while others called on landlords to “close housing” to Haitians and suggested that immigrants “smell them.” , according to the audio. recording.

These feelings felt familiar to 27-year-old Albertville resident and longtime community activist Yunique Dunston.

“Every time there is a new influx of people who are not white into Albertville, there seems to be a problem,” Dunston said.

Dunston runs a store that offers free supplies to the community. After the unrest spread across the country, he erected a series of billboards throughout the city that said in English, Spanish and Creole: “You’re welcome, happy neighbor.”

Dunston said the billboards were a way to “push back” the idea that immigrants are unwanted.

When Pastor John Pierre-Charles first arrived in Albertville in 2006, he said the only other Haitians he knew in the area were family.

In 14 years of operation, the congregation of his Creole-speaking church, Église Porte Étroit, has grown from just seven members to a congregation of nearly 300 in 2010. He is now adding classrooms to the church building for English classes and classes. education program for drivers, as well as a podcast studio to accommodate the growing community.

Still, Pierre-Charles described the past few months as “the worst time” for the Haitian community ever in Albertville.

“I see some people in Albertville who are really scared right now because they don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pierre-Charles said. “Some are scared because they think they might be sent back to Haiti. But some of them are scared because they don’t know how people will react to them.”

Following the results of the initial public meeting in August, Pierre-Charles sent a letter to city leadership calling for more resources for housing and food to ensure his growing community can safely adapt economically and culturally.

“That’s what I’m trying to do, be a bridge,” Pierre-Charles said.

He is not working alone.

In August, Garylyn Hanson, 54, helped organize the initial meeting in Albertville because she said many residents had legitimate questions about how immigration was affecting the city.

Now, Hanson says he is adjusting his strategy, “focusing on the human level.”

In September, Hanson, an electrical contractor and Trump supporter, formed a nonprofit that hopes to work with Pierre-Charles and other Haitian community leaders to offer more stable housing and English classes to meet growing demand.

“We could look at (Springfield) and become them in a year,” Hanson said, referring to perceived hostility in the Ohio city, which has been Flooded with threats. “We can sit back and do nothing and see it manifest right before our eyes. Or we can try to counteract some of that and make it a place where everyone can be productive and talk to each other.”

Similar debates have taken place at public meetings across the state – even though Haitian residents make up less than 0.5% of the entire population.

In Sylacauga, videos from numerous public meetings show residents questioning the impact of the supposed increase in Haitian immigration. The city of about 12,000 people southeast of Birmingham has just 60 Haitian immigrants, officials said.

In Enterprise, not far from the Alabama-Florida border, cars filled the parking lot of the Open Door Baptist Church in September for an event promising answers about how the growing Haitian population is affecting the city.

After the event, James Wright, chief of the Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe, sympathized with Haitians' reasons for fleeing their homes, but said he was concerned that immigrants would affect local “political culture” and “values.” community” company.

Other participants expressed fears and misinformation about Haitian immigrants being “irregular” and “dangerous.”

But some came to try to assuage the concerns of the immigrant community.

Enterprise Police Chief Michael Moore said he shared statistics from his department that show no measurable increase in crime as the Haitian population grows.

“I think there were some people who were more worried about intimidation than they were about immigrants,” Moore told the AP.

Moore said his department has received reports of Haitian immigrants living in homes that violate municipal code, but when he contacted the people in question, the problems were quickly resolved. Since then, his department has not heard credible complaints about crimes committed by immigrants.

“I completely understand that some people don’t like what I say because it doesn’t fit their own thought process,” Moore said. “But these are the facts.”