Spend more than a moment with Spokane’s Haitian population — about 500 people — and you’ll find folks who are in many ways just like everyone else here. They work hard. They pay taxes. They explore opportunities. They attend church. They’re proud of who they are.
But they are unlike most Spokanites in a very specific way: since the last contest for US president, Haitians have faced a brutally racist campaign of invective by people who are now running the federal government. The then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and a bench of their faithful courtiers insisted, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that some Haitian communities were eating people’s pets.
That racism has at times spilled into the media feeds of local governments, including in Spokane.
That bigotry portended the end of legal status for many Haitians who fled to the US from systemic gang violence in their home country of Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Trump ordered that status cancelled early in his second term, a directive that was supposed to take effect February 3, but a federal judge blocked the demise of the status — known as Temporary Protective Status (TPS) — for Haitian immigrants.
On February 1, the First Presbyterian Church of Spokane held a special service at which prominent members of Spokane’s Haitian communities — including Pastor Luc Jasmin of Maranatha Church and his children Katia and Luc — were joined by TPS recipients who said they worried about their futures. About 400 people attended the service. Clergy members of Spokane churches explained how everyday folks can stand up for Haitian immigrants.
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, who attended the special service, also sent a letter to the Eastern Washington delegation to the US Congress urging them to block the end of TPS for Haitian immigrants.
As the situation for Haitians develops in the US, RANGE is gathering their stories. Freelance photographer Sandra Rivera documented scenes from the service. We’re withholding the names of some in the photos to protect them from repercussions from the federal government. Here are some of Rivera’s images.
