KEY WEST — National attention returned to Key West on Monday as The New York Times examined the economic and human consequences of the Trump administration’s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
Reporter David Ovalle describes a tourism economy in which Haitian hotel workers, cooks, drivers and other employees are disappearing from workplaces and public spaces as immigration detentions increase and fear spreads through the community. The story notes that Key West’s dependence on tourism — and immigrant labor — makes the impact particularly acute.
The report follows the effects from restaurants struggling to replace workers to immigrants avoiding bicycles, churches moving services online and business owners warning that continued labor losses could damage the local economy just as the busy tourism season approaches.
Read David Ovalle’s full report in The New York Times: “Key West Feels the Pain of Trump Decision on Haitians.”
Essentially, everything Key Wester’s have been dealing with since the City signed the 287(g) agreement, Trump ended TPS and the KWPD started openly cooperating with ICE/CBP agents that likely wouldn’t qualify to be municpal dog catchers in their own hometowns.
