Haitian Immigration Would Be Bad, Actually, Even If They Were Vegans

If you read Peter Brimelow’s Alien Nation, you’ll find that Haitian immigration was a problem even in the 90s, when then-President Bill Clinton was “forced to order the interception of boats carrying would-be illegal immigrants from Haiti on the high seas” because of America’s “inability to expel asylum seekers” [Alien Nation, p.27].

A. M. Rosenthal  defended Haitian illegal immigration in the New York Times because he himself had been an illegal immigrant in the 1930s—brought by his father illegally  from Canada in the 1930s, rather than fleeing Russia. Also defending Haitian illegals: “conservative” P. J. O’Rourke in the American Spectator, who compared Clinton’s defense of the US from Haitian rafters to the actions of the Ku Klux Klan. [Kleagle Clinton A meditation on the Caribbean refugee crisis, November 1994].

Rosenthal thought the Haitians were the same as the pre-1924 Ellis Island immigrants, and O’Rourke thought that just by illegally floating to America (endangering their own lives and the lives of their children) the Haitians had shown the gumption that America needs.

I’m not sure that either man had met a Haitian at this point. Haitians are different from Americans in a number of ways.

In Springfield, OH, which has been stricken by a huge wave of Haitian immigrants, they are still arguing about whether local Haitians are eating cats, dogs, and ducks and geese out of parks.

They have, however, produced evidence of two white American human beings run over by Haitian drivers (an 11 year old boy and a 71 year old grandmother), and according to the NY Post,  Fatal accidents in Springfield, Ohio, jumped four-fold last year — as residents say migrants unfamiliar with US rules[September 14, 2024]

The NY Post sent reporters to Springfield and the reporters actually saw a Haitian accident with their own eyes:

A Haitian driver made an illegal turn and smashed into a mother’s pickup truck in Springfield, Ohio, a Post reporter witnessed Friday — as the small city grapples with a surge of immigrants from the Caribbean country who are unfamiliar with the rules of the road.

Robyn Stultz, a 32-year-old mother of three, was approaching the intersection at West First Street and St Paris Road with her 7-year-old autistic daughter in the backseat when a black Hyundai sedan collided with her truck around 2:30 p.m.

The Haitian driver made a right turn from the left lane — marked for continuing straight or turning left —  and crashed into Stultz’s Ford F-350, which was making a right turn from the right lane, when he tried to overtake her, a Post reporter observed.

The Haitian driver, who remained at the scene, told The Post he was licensed and was driving to his job at Amazon. He said he had lived in the US for three years.

“I went to turn, there was an accident and that’s it. Why are you asking me questions?” he said.

Post witnesses Haitian motorist making illegal turn in Springfield, Ohio, smashes into mom driving with autistic daughter

By Jack Morphet and Patrick Reilly, September 13, 2024

This is extremely typical of Haiti, where the road safety conditions are terrible—see for example Officials: Head-on crash in Haiti leaves over 20 dead, dozens injured By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, April 29, 2021.

Or this one, 24 dead and 40 injured in a gas tanker explosion, just the other day:

Haitians are simply not safety minded:

According to Eduardo Neret on Substack, the county where Springfield OH is now has “over 2,300 Haitian immigrants with driver’s licenses” who have allegedly passed the Ohio driver’s test, and of course, there must be many Haitian drivers on the road with no license and no insurance.

Haiti has been an independent  country  almost as long as the United States. The Haitian Revolution of 1792 involved an almost total massacre of all white inhabitants. In 2010, white evangelist Pat Robertson got in trouble for saying, in regard to Haiti’s frequent earthquakes and hurricanes, that

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” he said. “They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’

“True story. And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,'” Robertson said. “Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

I was surprised to hear him say that, but I looked into it, and it’s essentially true. (No cats or geese were harmed at the ceremony of Bois Caiman in August of 1791—they sacrificed a pig, instead.)

The Dominican Republic, occupying the eastern half of the same island, is much more mixed population, and much better run than Haiti. In particular, they have built a wall to keep out Haitian illegals, and are deporting the illegals already there.

But aside from traffic accidents (and crime, of which there’s a lot) there’s no reason to think Haitian immigration is good for America in general, or Springfield in particular:

In 2010, in response to whatever was the latest Haiti crisis, and a Wall Street Journal editorial in favor of letting Haitians stay because   “Haitian immigrants as a group are among America’s most successful….”, VDARE.com published an article called National Data | Haitian Immigrants Pretty Useless—But Haiti Still Needs Them More Than We Do. [January 21, 2010]

VDARE wrote

Wrong, of course. Just another immigrant enthusiast myth from the folks who brought you the myth of Hispanic “family values”.

Haitian immigrant poverty rates are nearly three times those of non-Hispanic whites (immigrant and non-immigrant). Their per capita income is barely half that of European immigrants and is about one-third below that of the hundreds of millions of non-Hispanic whites. As for their lofty education levels, that myth cannot survive comparison with European immigrants who are more than twice as likely to have a BA or better.

It included this chart:

As you can see, what this means is that Haitian immigration, even if all Haitians were vegan, swore off crime, and promised to rid the bus instead of driving, would be a net loss for America.

Such people pay less in taxes than they use in government services, and if they’re doing work “Americans won’t do”, it’s only because they’re doing it cheaper, and with less concern for safety.

It may be true that these facts, if known, would be more effective at raising American consciousness about immigration as memes about cats, but it could never be as funny: