News & Views

Haitians Also Need Our Help

If COVID and the three ongoing displacement crises have taught us anything, it’s been the absolute imperative to be able to pivot quickly and without obstruction as crises unfold. Donate now to help us do this.

WATCH OUR BRIEFING ON “UKRAINE, AFGHANISTAN, HAITI: OUR WORLD IN CRISIS”


In recent months, hundreds of supporters have come forward in support of Afghans forced to flee, in large part because of our own actions. Haiti, at almost the same moment, has experienced tremendous blows to their own country’s stability—first the assassination of their President and then the most recent earthquake. While these displacing crises are not clearly because of American actions, there are several dots to connect to the US in terms of climate change, our failed policies around this, and our failed interventions with governments across the world, including Haiti, meant to protect our interests.

In addition, we have our own several crises to address—huge staffing crises across multiple industries and multiple skill levels, more than a decade of declining birth rates which have shrunk our tax base and fed the staffing crises, increases in death due to COVID-19 and its politicization, and rising gun violence. Because of all of this, we desperately need immigrants—whether Haitian, Afghan, Central American, or from any other place. Immigrants, if treated humanely, welcomed, provided with integration supports, given immunization against COVID-19, and educated and encouraged to participate in our democracy are a direct response to all of these crises.

And perhaps more importantly, worldwide displacement is the highest it has ever been and will continue to rise dramatically as climate change and its ripple effects—scarcity of resources, destruction of property, reshaping of land and sea masses—grows. Now is the time to advocate for more immigrants, not fewer. Alarm over the numbers of Haitians at our border and Afghans in need of help is unwarranted and inhumane. These are large numbers, absolutely. But they are numbers of people, not just numbers. And there are much larger numbers of open positions across the U.S. and larger numbers of people needed to repopulate our cities, towns, and counties and larger numbers of tax dollars needed to fund our basic services. Welcoming is a moral imperative, an economic one and the healthiest thing we can do for each other.

Connect the dots and advocate—for immigrants, for your neighbors, for your country, for yourselves! This toolkit, prepared by a national organization, provides background information and scripts to advocate for Haitians at our border.

Download Call/Letter Script for: More Information on Revoking Title 42

Updated on 4/21/2022.
TONIGHT (4/20) - Join us ONLINE at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!

Join us ONLINE at 6:45PM TONIGHT, Thursday, April 20th, for HIAS PA's 2023 Golden Door Awards: United for Immigrants!

Happy Passover from HIAS Pennsylvania!HIAS PA is closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover

HIAS Pennsylvania will be closed in observance of the Jewish holiday of Passover from 1PM on Wednesday, April 5th through Friday, April 7th, and on Wednesday, April 12th and Thursday, April 13th.

Join us at the 2023 Golden Door Awards!United for Immigrants

The Golden Door Awards is HIAS Pennsylvania's annual fundraiser. Your generous support helps us serve low-income immigrants from all over the world as they build new lives in our community.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

Building closed until further noticeHIAS PA remains open!

HIAS PA’s physical offices at 600 Chestnut Street are CLOSED until further notice due to a burst pipe in the building.

Our organization remains open, and HIAS PA staff continue to work remotely at this time.

Please call (215) 832-0900 with any questions.

TONIGHT: Join us at the table!Join us for Thankful Together!

Thankful Together, formerly known as Refugee Thanksgiving, is happening TONIGHT at 6PM!

Register here to join us tonight: https://hiaspa1.wpengine.com/event/thankful-together-2021/

Celebrate our volunteers who make this all possible!Click here at 11:45AM to join our Annual Meeting!

Click here to join our virtual Annual Meeting!

The Annual Meeting starts at noon, but join us at 11:45AM for an informal chat before the event!

POSTPONED! Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan

Today's Speed Advocacy: Afghanistan Facebook Live event has been postponed due to a worldwide Facebook outage. We will update you as soon as possible about rescheduling the event.