Spring Valley rallies around its Haitian community

Sometimes it takes a village to get things done. In the case of young immigrant Alan Pierre, it also helped to have an attorney, a vocal pastor and a U.S. Congressman to intervene after the teenager was arrested by ICE.

Pierre, now a student in Spring Valley High School, made the perilous journey from war-torn Haiti to the southern border where he promptly applied for Temporary Protected Status; he came to Rockland County to live with his father, a United States citizen. Last month, when the teen went to keep the appointment he made with U.S. Immigration/Customs Enforcement when he entered the United States, he was arrested and sent to a detention center. 

On Thursday, July 11, First Timothy Christian Church’s Pastor Nate Demosthene was joined U.S. Representative Michael Lawler, who helped facilitate Pierre’s release just one day earlier. The pair held a press conference attended by several community advocates and local officials who rallied around young man and expressed concern for others who also made the trek to escape the warlords and drug cartels who hold sway over Haiti. (Its president, Jovenel Moise, was gruesomely assassinated in his Port Au Prince home in 2021; since then, free and fair elections do not exist in the war-torn island nation.)

Lawler thanked the media for shining a light on Pierre’s arrest and said he worked with Homeland Security Kristi Noem to get him freed from the detention center and returned to his father. “For all that you do here in Spring Valley, your leadership matters and it has made a difference in this community,” said Lawler to the pastors, supporters and elected officials gathered at the church. “Spring Valley has the second largest diaspora of Haitian immigrants per capita in the country, and I am proud to represent them. Challenges on the ground in Haiti are immense…it has devolved into a full-blown crisis, with a government that is unstable and beholden to gangs and others involved in drug, gun and human trafficking, a serious challenge that requires a comprehensive response.”   Lawler said that without basic security or a president to lead the country, it is dangerous to both Haitians and Americans, who have been warned not to visit the island.

Lawler said the Haitian population living in Rockland on TPS came there for safety, security and opportunity and that 40 percent of the population of Haiti now lives in the United States. “A peacekeeping force in that country is not going to help,” added the Congressman, saying it was imperative to realize the dire situation Haitians face. “It is imperative to extend TPS…it is temporary, targeted and needed by the Haitian community. Other countries have abused the TPS status, but not those who come from Haiti.” 

After more than 11 million people illegally crossed the southern border into the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced in late June the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti. The TPS designation for that country expires on Aug. 3, 2025, and its termination will be effective on September 2, 2025. 

Saying the TPS process can be complicated, exhausting and difficult to navigate, Lawler and fellow Congresswoman Laura Anne Gillen (D-4^th CD-Nassau County), are co-sponsors of an updated version of The Dignity Act, which will allow those who came into the country illegally to be vetted and allowed to remain if they meet the amended legislation’s parameters. “At the end of the day, it isn’t about choosing between security and compassion,” said Lawler. “We can still stand with the Haitian- American families in our district when they are doing everything within the confines of the law.”