In case you missed it, Ambassador Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, reminded Pat Robertson on The Rachel Maddow Show last night that the United States benefited from the deal with the devil in the form of a really good price on the Louisiana purchase.
While that provides a sense of satisfaction, it also serves as a reminder on how much the two countries really are linked.
And in other Haiti news, the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday it would temporarily stop deportations to Haiti in the wake of Tuesday's earthquake.
That could be only a practical response to the tremendous problems on the ground, but Taylor Barnes writes at the Christian Science Monitor that some are hoping it might be one step to rethinking a disparity in U.S. immigration policy that makes it easier for Cubans to come to the country than Haitians.
. . . Haitians do not have a 'wet-foot dry-foot' policy similar to Cubans, which eases their immigration to the US. (Under US law, Cuban nationals who reach the US by boat and make it to land have the right to stay whether or not they have a visa.)
Speaking with reporters in Miami, Haitian-born Florida state rep. Yolly Roberson said of Haitian immigrants long-standing desire to be granted TPS: "If there is ever a time for the federal government to consider granting Temporary Protected Status to Haitians, this is now. This is not the time to send Haitians back to Haiti.''
--Monica Potts
