Overview:
The Indiana Haitians driver’s license legal victory is a testament to the importance of standing up for what is right, even if you just got here as an immigrant. Their case exemplifies what Dr. King implores us to do.
This story is part of the Haitians in America series looking at Haitians and Haitian Americans across the United States. Financial support for this work is provided by the Ford Foundation.
NEW YORK—More than any other month, January is when we’re reminded most of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s timeless words: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This year, January comes with a fresh, satisfying example of Haitians in America living up to Dr. King’s legacy, just in time for MLK Day. I’m talking about the Haitian immigrants in Indiana who challenged the state’s discriminatory driver’s license policy — and won!
The victory benefits not only them, but people of all ethnicities in a similar position in that state. The victory should serve as a commendable model for all Haitian Americans and other immigrants – no matter where you’re from or how long ago you got to America – on how to go about gaining equal and equitable treatment in this era.
I’m jumping ahead, so let’s back up a little. Around this time last year, the Biden Administration launched the sponsorship-based humanitarian parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Hondurans. Few could imagine then that one byproduct of the I-134A authorized migration process would be a lawsuit against a state agency in a flyover state. A suit brought on by such an immigrant.
But that’s what’s happened. Over the summer, the Indiana legislature passed a law that included the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) policy that allowed only Ukrainian refugees to obtain driver’s licenses and other state-issued identification cards. A group of five Haitian-born Indiana residents, all arriving on humanitarian parole, felt it was wrong to be left out just because they’re Haitian.
A triumph against injustice
Say what now?
Can you imagine going through all that these folks might have gone through in Haiti or in leaving in, only to be held back in America? What’s the point, America, of letting people into the country on humanitarian grounds, only to clip their wings with a different type of human rights violation?
Anyone could see this ID policy was discriminatory based on national origin. Federal law says so.
Despite facing language barriers, including legalese, lack of familiarity with the U.S. judicial system and the risk of becoming targets of xenophobia, the group of five sued to have driver’s licenses. The plaintiffs. With the ACLU of Indiana chapter and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Haitian community at large and immigrant advocates, the group prevailed in court.
Last week, a federal district court issued a permanent injunction against the BMV policy. This doesn’t mean the case is over, but for all intents and purposes, the BMV has to give Haitians who qualify — and anyone else allowed to live in that state — their identification cards. Thanks to the plaintiffs, all worth naming and applauding: Jeffson St-Hilaire, Merlange Meme, Evenks Meme, Nadege Jean Marie and the minor identified by the initials L.M.D.M.
The victory of these five Indiana Haitians will benefit potentially thousands, as people of all races continue to flock to the midwestern state. Their choice to not only complain to family and friends, but to go one step further and pursue their rights in court reminds us that the pursuit of justice can cut through state boundaries, language barriers or other limitations. That it can and should shift depending on the circumstances. Like the courtroom to assert ourselves.
‘Libète, se pran ou pran sa’
Growing up in Haiti and Brooklyn, I can’t count how many times I heard the adage: “Libète, se pa on bagay ou mande. Libète, se pran ou pran l.” Freedom isn’t given, it’s taken.
Yet, for too long, people in our community shied away from applying that liberating attitude to ills we experience in America. That’s partly why so many of us have fallen prey to injustices, whether inflicted by people in our trusted networks or the broader society’s systemic barriers. Overall, our mindset has been ‘don’t rock the boat’ or draw attention to ourselves, to our detriment in progressing even farther.
With the exception of some egregious or widespread instances that brought out tens of thousands of marchers for protest rallies — like the Abner Louima police brutality case and the CDC’s erroneous HIV risk group classifications — our default as Haitian Americans has been to stay low key. To go to work, school and church, hit up a bal or gala, sponsor relatives to come up, send money to Haiti. To keep wrongs within our “tight-knit” enclaves, a double-edged sword to explore another time.
Given our pattern, this victory in Indiana is that much more commendable. It rejects the ‘suffer in silence’ mentality, dispels the self-devaluing, xenophobic notion that America is doing immigrants a favor letting us in. Yet, another oppressive view that has kept some of us from asserting our rights.
So, bravo to the Indiana Haitians’ fortifying triumph. They took an issue that could’ve been dismissed as a simple inconvenience, one that could’ve been left on the books for years repressing all kinds of people. The Haitians could’ve said, “ I just got here, let me not make waves.” Instead, they took up the mantle of plaintiff, in a case that benefits not only them, but other immigrant groups.
That is what Toussaint Louverture meant when he said, “In overthrowing me you have cut down in Saint Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty; it will spring up again from the roots, for they are numerous and they are deep.” I hope the victory also mobilizes all of us to actively stand up against injustice, inequality and inequity wherever we see them, just as Dr. King implored us to do.
