August 13, 2025

Press Contact:  media@haitianbridge.org , info@haitianbridge.org

SAN DIEGO, CA — The Haitian Bridge Alliance expresses grave concern over the Trump administration’s decision to deploy the National Guard  to the nation’s capital, warning that increased militarization will have devastating consequences for immigrant, refugee, Black and Brown communities who already live under heightened surveillance and fear of law enforcement.

“Washington, D.C. is home to vibrant immigrant communities who contribute to every part of our city’s life,” said Guerline Jozef, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “By sending in the National Guard, the government is sending a clear message: that our communities are to be monitored, controlled, and feared. This is the same playbook that has led to mass deportations, family separations, and police brutality across the country. We reject it. Our neighborhoods need increase congressional funding housing, healthcare, and humane immigration policies—not troops in the streets.”

Haitian Bridge Alliance notes that immigrant communities in D.C. already face intersecting crises: a lack of access to affordable legal representation, language barriers, wage theft, and the threat of ICE enforcement. The presence of the National Guard, the Alliance warns, will only compound these challenges by creating an atmosphere of intimidation that discourages residents from seeking help or participating in civic life.

“This is not about safety—it’s about power,” Jozef continued. “We have seen time and again that when law enforcement is militarized, it is our Black, Brown, and immigrant neighbors who suffer the most. President Trump speaks of poor and homeless people as if they are debris to be swept away, not human beings with dignity and dreams. Moving people without a real plan is not leadership—it’s cruelty dressed up as policy. This is the kind of dehumanization that turns poverty into a crime and erases the humanity of our most vulnerable neighbors. We call on all people of conscience to stand with us in resisting this dangerous normalization of military force against our communities.”

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ABOUT HAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE

Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), also known as “The Bridge”, is a grassroots community organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, foreign policy, and provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services, with a particular focus on Black migrants, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. HBA also seeks to elevate the issues unique to Black migrants and build solidarity and a collective movement toward policy change. Anpil men chay pa lou (“Many hands make the load light”).
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