‘It’s the same playbook:’ Gee and Ursula Show slam Trump for ending Haitian immigration program

Spokane’s Haitian community is facing uncertainty after U.S. President Donald Trump halted a program protecting Haitians from being deported.

The Spokesman-Review reported Sunday the congregants at an East Central church began crying when the pastor’s daughter explained Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians would end in August. The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release it would not renew TPS, first instituted in 2010 following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, meaning around half a million Haitians will lose their work permits and could be eligible to be removed from the country.

“For decades the TPS system has been exploited and abused,” Homeland Security said in a statement. “For example, Haiti has been designated for TPS since 2010. The data shows each extension of the country’s TPS designation allowed more Haitian nationals, even those who entered the U.S. illegally, to qualify for legal protected status.”

Homeland Security, as reported by AP, said around 57,000 Haitians were eligible for TPS protections in 2011, but that number had skyrocketed to 520,694 by July of last year.

“To send 500,000 people back to a country where there is such a high level of death, it is utterly inhumane,” Tessa Petit, a Haitian American who works as executive director at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told AP. “We do hope that, because they said that they are going to revisit, that they put politics aside and put humanity first.”

Gee Scott: History is repeating itself

Gee Scott, host of “The Gee and Ursula Show,” on KIRO Newsradio, said this is par for the course.

“This is a time in history where people that are black and brown skin, if they are from other countries, they are deemed the problem,” Gee proclaimed.

He also asked why the U.S. doesn’t look for people from Canada or Europe who have overstayed their visas. Gee believes history is repeating itself.

“It is eerie, the things that were said in the 40s, in the 50s, they are being said today, they might sound a little different, but it’s the same playbook,” he said. “And this thing about the demonization, this is the problem that I have, and this might go a little bit deeper than this whole deportation, things like that, but one thing that is the same is, first, there always has to be a lie to continue to gain. Once the truth happens, it stops. So you have to keep the lie and the myth going.

“And right now, today’s lie is no different than 50, 60 years ago’s lie,” Gee continued. “Today’s lie is everyone that is brown or dark-skinned, that is from the south of the border, are criminals, right? Are rapists, and all of those different things is different. That’s the same way it was back then, 57 years ago, you don’t want Black people in your neighborhood, right? And I know sometimes when you guys hear me talk this way, you might cringe. It might make you feel uncomfortable. But the truth, and what really has happened, is something that we have not talked about enough because we went through so much time of ‘It’s not a good time to talk about it,’ and you want to know what’s happening, we’re literally repeating what happened back there.”

Angela Poe Russell: ‘They’re living good lives’

Guest-host Angela Poe Russell said Trump did not talk about ending TPS in his campaign stump speeches.

“He really talked about border security and ‘We want to make sure we crack down on people who are here illegally, who have committed crimes,'” she said. “He mentioned the rapist, the robbers, the gang people, ‘We’re going to get all of them out of there’ and so a lot of people were like, ‘I’m here for that, I think that needs to happen,’ and then you go to a case like this, where this is not what you talked about in your campaign speech.

“These people who came here legally,” she continued. “They came here under temporary protected status, I think many of them after the devastating earthquake. It was not livable there. So just like with Ukrainians, we have taken in people under that status and they’ve been working in all kinds of jobs. Some are going to school or taking classes. I mean, they’re living good lives.”

To listen to the full conversation, click the player below:

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Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9am to 12am on KIRO Newsradio.