The New York Times today says that Key West wouldn’t have any tourists if not for Haitian migrants. Somalis built Boston and Minneapolis and Haitians created Florida tourism. “Haitian Workers Keep Key West Tourism Afloat. Now They’re Disappearing.”:
The Haitian hotel housekeepers, restaurant cooks and Uber drivers who quietly help power Key West’s tourism economy are disappearing.
Some have been detained by Border Patrol agents since late July, when the Trump administration ended a legal protection that had allowed 330,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States.
There is “violence and instability” in Haiti, but we can import 100% of Haitians and the same people won’t create any violence or instability here:
It’s a situation familiar to communities across Florida; the state has the nation’s largest Haitian population, including tens of thousands who have lost the legal safeguard known as Temporary Protected Status, which the United States had granted them because of the violence and instability in their home country.
(the violence and instability are features of the terrain, not something in any way related to the people who inhabit the terrain)
The New York Times constantly reminds us that workers should be paid more (they’re “underpaid”). But in the context of making sure that we max out on immigrants, it is also bad if workers in the U.S. get paid more:
When Mayor Sam Kaufman visited Hispanic-owned restaurants last month, owners shared stories of line cooks, busboys and delivery drivers, some with valid work permits, getting detained and deported. Those who remained were being crushed with extra work, with some owners delivering food themselves.
Mr. Kaufman noted that Key West was too far from the mainland to bus in workers.
“The price of labor is going to shoot up,” he said. “There is going to be real competition to retain the work force.”
Or will the supply of workers be reduced? Here’s the most interesting part of the article:
One such person, a 41-year-old father of two, said he had fled gang violence in Haiti for Brazil, before joining relatives in Key West in 2022. The man, who did not want his name used for fear of attracting immigration authorities, works at a supermarket deli, earning $19 an hour.
He lost T.P.S. in July. He is still able to work because of a pending asylum claim, but that offers little guarantee against immigration detention. Inside their tiny trailer home, he and his wife anxiously monitor WhatsApp for immigration enforcement updates last month as they care for their young children.
Asylum is a 10-year bureaucratic process, at least (see Will any Salvadorans in the U.S. go home to El Salvador today?). So by saying “I request asylum” this guy should be able to get W-2 work until his anchor babies (multiple “young children”) are old enough to sponsor him for a green card under family unification (U.S. citizen adult has the automatic right to bring parents here).
At what rate are migrants being detained by ICE? The NYT article says that 5,000 Haitians live in Key West and that 30 were detained in August. (I don’t think this 5,000 number counts children since they’re “American”, not “Haitian”, via the magic of birthright citizenship.)
Related, a web page regarding the La Concha, built by Haitians in 1925-6 as the first luxury hotel in Key West.
See also the Overseas Railroad Wikipedia page, regarding the railroad that prominent Haitian Henry Flagler opened in 1912 and that opened Key West to mass tourism.
