Payen said the HCA seeks to address common issues within the Haitian community, with the most common struggle being no path to integration into Springfield. He said the group is working to spread messages of togetherness.
This is a particularly pertinent message right now, with messages of hatred and anger being directed toward Haitian immigrants in Springfield in other ways. The city was recently thrust into the national spotlight when a claim went viral that Haitian immigrants — of whom 12,000 to 15,000 live in the Springfield area — were eating people’s pets. Law enforcement and city officials have said there is zero evidence to back these claims.
These claims were repeated by numerous politicians and Republican leaders, including by former President Donald Trump at the presidential debate last month, and his running mate U.S. Sen. JD Vance.
Payen said it’s important for citizens to take the time to get to know Haitian immigrants in the community, giving them the opportunity to learn that Haitians are not violent or angry people.
“We’ve been sending out there to the local residents that aren’t Haitians and also to the city as a whole, we’ve been asking to unite the city with the Haitian community. We need understanding from the [non-Haitian] residents,” Payen said. “We need them to learn who we are as people, so learn a little bit about our culture, our food, everything. Once they start to do that, we will get to the point where they will not look at us as bad as they used to, but for the most part, we’re preaching unity throughout the city.”
Another goal is addressing driving education for the Haitian community, he said.
Payen said the HCA is using its own resources to try to accomplish this goal of unity, like hosting conversations on local Haitian radio station New Diaspora Live. He said he and other HCA members are also trying to find a way to spread this message in private interactions.
Since the city became an example for politicians arguing about immigration, Payen said Haitian residents are “living in fear” but most understand that this is a “difficult moment” that will end in due time.
“The city officials put together the proper security measures for us to feel safe but with people making threats, either on social media or physical threats ... our community is still afraid of getting out there like we used to because we don’t know what may happen to us,” Payen said. “So therefore we try to kind of stay home and ... observe what’s happening, what’s going on [and] going to happen.”
Payen said many in the Haitian community were aware there was a need for a movement such as the HCA long before the population became the subject of such widespread vitriol and hatred. He said the idea was to have something in place so that leaders of the community would be prepared to come together as one voice.
“We knew there were a lot of us here in Springfield; we knew eventually it was going to lead to something, [but] we didn’t know what it was,” Payen said. “We started talking ever since we were aware of the maybe big boom that may happen one day because if we [are] 10-15,000, that’s a lot for a small community. So we knew if it wasn’t today it’s going to be tomorrow.”
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