The Haitian diaspora’s political organizing in response to the worsening crisis at home intensified significantly in 2023, with community organizations in the United States, Canada, and France mounting more sustained and sophisticated advocacy campaigns than at any previous point in the crisis. The diaspora’s growing political maturity and its increasing representation in elected bodies gave these campaigns more direct access to policy levers than previous advocacy efforts had possessed.
In the United States, Haitian-American advocacy organizations mounted campaigns on multiple fronts: pushing Congress for legislation to extend TPS and create more durable legal pathways for Haitian immigrants; pressing the State Department for more active engagement with Haiti’s political and security crisis; calling for stronger action against weapons trafficking to Haiti from Florida; and demanding that US policy toward Haitian migration reflect the same humanitarian principles applied to migrants from other countries.
Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and other Haitian-American elected officials used their platforms to keep Haiti visible in congressional debates, hosting hearings, introducing legislation, and consistently raising Haiti in discussions of US foreign and immigration policy. Their presence in Congress represented a qualitative change in the diaspora’s access to American political decision-making.
In Canada, where a significant Haitian community in Montreal had produced engaged political actors across party lines, advocacy focused on maintaining and expanding Canadian sanctions on individuals connected to Haiti’s gang violence and on pushing for Canadian leadership on international security assistance. The Canadian government’s deployment of navy vessels for intelligence gathering was partly a response to this diaspora pressure.