July 4, 2026
Media Contact: info@haitianbridge.org; media@haitianbridge.org

SAN DIEGO, CA— “E Pluribus Unum” “Out of Many, One” 

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States, Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) calls on the nation to confront an uncomfortable truth: while America celebrates liberty, too many Black and Brown people, including immigrants, continue to experience exclusion, racialized enforcement, dehumanization, and the dismantling of humanitarian protections.

More than 170 years ago, Frederick Douglass asked, ” What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?” Today, that question echoes through immigrant communities whose humanity is too often overshadowed by politics. Recent Supreme Court decisions allowing the termination of humanitarian protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants —including Haitians with Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—have deepened fear and uncertainty for families who have lived, worked, and contributed to the United States for decades. 

The contradiction is impossible to ignore. The Trump Administration has prioritized refugee admissions for white Afrikaners from South Africa based on false claims of persecution that have been strongly disputed by the South African government and challenged by refugee and human rights organizations, while simultaneously eliminating asylum and humanitarian protections for Black and brown immigrants fleeing internationally documented violence, armed conflict, political instability, and humanitarian crises in countries such as Haiti, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Haitian immigrants have always been an integral part of the American story. They serve as nurses, physicians, home health aides, educators, entrepreneurs, first responders, truck drivers, construction workers, and small business owners. They care for America’s sick, strengthen its workforce, pay billions in taxes, raise U.S.-citizen children, and contribute immeasurably to the nation’s economic and civic life.

“America’s greatness has never been measured by who it excludes, but by its willingness to expand the promise of freedom,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance. “On this 250th Independence Day, we honor the ideals upon which this nation was founded while demanding that those ideals apply equally to Black and Brown immigrants. We reject an immigration system that values some lives over others based on race or nationality. Freedom without equality and equity is incomplete, and justice that excludes immigrants is not justice at all.”

As America reflects on 250 years of independence, Haitian Bridge Alliance urges the nation to recommit itself to the principles of equal protection, due process, racial justice, and human dignity for all. The work of perfecting this Union is unfinished, and the struggle to ensure that liberty belongs to everyone continues.

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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