New Orleans fears loss of Haitian migrants who helped build the city

The United States Supreme Court last month allowed the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians, affecting thousands.

But in New Orleans, Haitian culture has been embedded for over 200 years.

From shotgun houses to red beans and rice, Haitian immigration has left a mark on Louisiana and specifically New Orleans, more than any other place in America.

For chef and owner of Fritai, Charly Pierre, New Orleans connects with him like other places don't.

"There's something a little beautifully dysfunctional about the city," Pierre says. "That reminds me of being in the Caribbean."

Pierre was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts after his parents fled Haiti to Venezuela before arriving in the United States in 1988.

"They just wanted a new life. Just like most Haitians who leave Haiti, they wanted something a little bit more than what Haiti had to offer at the time."

Pierre's Haitian restaurant sits on the edge of the Treme neighborhood, where the Haitian Revolution once drove thousands of refugees to settle in the early 1800s.

Tulane University Professor Laura Adderley says New Orleans' culture was shaped in part by Haitian immigrants and disagrees with the Supreme Court's ruling.

"I think it poses a national challenge to us as a city with an opportunity to stand up for the diverse immigrant character of our city and of the United States as being legitimate and to not be swept aside in the interests of some short term political concerns."

Pierre echoes that belief and says New Orleans and Haiti have been "growing symbiotically."

"If you just came from Haiti and just landed here and you knew nothing about the history of New Orleans and Haiti, you would just see the intertwining cultures and activities that happen on a daily basis."

The situation in Haiti remains dire, with violence and humanitarian crises making return unsafe for immigrants living in America.

Despite that, last month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the Trump administration to end legal protections for migrants and now hundreds of thousands of people now face the prospect of deportation across the US.

Pierre says he comes across Haitian people in New Orleans sporadically and worries for those that are undocumented.

"All these people are humans and they're just trying to live, make an earning to support their whole family just like everybody else."