Movement and the Diaspora

Willow Smith by Zhong Lin for Allure Magazine May 2024

My fiancé immigrated to the US from Haiti as a child. His mother made an enormous sacrifice, giving up her *only* child and arranging for family to take him in and raise him. He left at age 9, and they weren’t reunited until he was finally able to travel back to Haiti to visit her in 2022.

After becoming a US citizen just a few years ago, he started the process of filing paperwork to bring her to the US. I don’t need to tell you that our immigration system is deeply broken. I might, however, need to tell you that Haitians in particular have an extremely difficult time getting visas due to a number of reasons. After their president was assassinated in 2021, things became exponentially worse. Gangs took control of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, terrorizing its citizens and displacing thousands.

Just as my fiancé’s mother was finally cleared for an immigration interview, the violence escalated to the point that the US shut down its only embassy in Haiti. No embassy means no interviews. So, we changed course and applied for Form I-134A, AKA “The Biden Program,”a new review process specifically for Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans. Basically, it’s a lottery for expedited travel, no interview needed. For months, we waited for an update.

Which brings us to this Tuesday, January 2nd. As we were getting ready for work, we got the call that she had suddenly become violently ill and had been rushed to the hospital. An hour later, she was dead.

We’re traveling to Haiti to bury her next week, but even after tapping into our honeymoon fund, the funeral costs are beyond what we can cover. So, we’re asking for help. A close friend set up a Gofundme for us, you can find the link below. Anything at all that you can contribute will help us greatly.

Thank you.

Roberto Ruspoli’s studio in Rome

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