Haiti Blocks Several Dominican Products From Entering Through Dajabón Border Crossing

Ballon d’Or Names Melchie Dumornay Among 30 Nominees for 2026 Women’s Award⁠ ⁠ France Football has officially named Melchie Dumornay to the 30-player shortlist for the 2026 Women’s Ballon d’Or. The Haiti international and OL Lyonnes midfielder appears on the list released September 8, her second consecutive nomination for the sport’s highest individual honor. The winner will be announced October 26 in London.⁠ ⁠ Dumornay, 23, built her case on a complete season in France and Europe. She helped Lyon win a domestic treble Première Ligue, Coupe de France, and Coupe de la Ligue and reach the UEFA Women’s Champions League final. She was named Première Ligue Player of the Season and selected to UEFA’s Champions League Team of the Season, with a hat-trick in the French league final among her defining performances.⁠ ⁠ She is the first Haitian player ever nominated for the Ballon d’Or, a barrier she broke in 2025. This year she returns with a stronger résumé and is being ranked by several outlets among the leading contenders, alongside names such as Alexia Putellas, Ewa Pajor, Pernille Harder, and Khadija Shaw.⁠ ⁠ The official Ballon d’Or graphic places her in the same frame as the game’s established stars. For Haiti, that is the story: a player from Mirebalais standing on the shortlist on merit. October 26 will decide the trophy. The nomination is already history confirmed.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican #haitian

A Haitian student in Florida woke up to find every class on his schedule gone. In a video recorded from his car, he said the school told him the drop was tied to his immigration status. He is frustrated, pointing to the effort families make to get here and stay in school, and asking why a student already enrolled would be pulled out overnight.⁠ ⁠ A second video, recorded inside a campus office, shows what happened next. He told staff he called after seeing his courses disappear and was told it was an immigration issue that “needed to be disregarded.” An employee asked for his address, then his status. “Asylum,” he said.⁠ ⁠ He confirmed he has an Employment Authorization Document. The category on the card is C08, the code used for people with pending asylum applications. He did not have the current card on him, but staff identified the category and said his information may not have transferred during a system switch. Then came the policy line that is landing across Florida campuses this year.⁠ ⁠ The staff member said the school is no longer accepting TPS. His status, they added, was different. “Your status is fine,” the employee said. “I have to update it.”⁠ ⁠ They told him he was good through spring 2030 and began checking his account so he could be put back in class. When he asked to be added to a specific course, staff said they could not automatically re-enroll him in that section and would have to see if the class was still open. or whether he needed to contact the professor.⁠ ⁠ The distinction matters. TPS and pending asylum are not the same thing. Florida’s public colleges have spent 2026 tightening enrollment rules around lawful presence after state boards moved to bar undocumented students from the Florida College System and, more recently, from selective public universities beginning in 2027–28.⁠ ⁠ For Haitian students across South Florida, the clip is landing as more than one campus glitch. It is the sound of how fast a semester can disappear when immigration categories, school software, and new state rules collide even when the student sitting in the chair already has a valid path to stay enrolled.⁠ ⁠ 🎥 @vadson_galioth #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

On Saturday morning, Sept. 12, Byron Donalds stood in North Miami and made his case to Haitian Floridians.⁠ ⁠ The Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for governor posted the visit the next day: four photographs and a short line. “Resilient. Faithful. Hardworking. That’s Florida’s Haitian community and that’s who I spoke with in North Miami yesterday morning,” he wrote. “It is a privilege to meet with the Floridians I intend to serve.”⁠ ⁠ The pictures came from a campaign “Community Breakfast & Conversation” at Katz Miami Restaurant & Lounge, a Haitian restaurant in North Miami. The program began at 11. Donalds appeared with Elizabeth Jeanty. The invite listed community leaders, pastors, business owners, elected officials, media, and supporters.⁠ ⁠ What he did not put in the post is the record that makes the stop politically loaded.⁠ ⁠ Three weeks earlier, on Aug. 23, Donalds went on CBS’s Face the Nation and defended the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. Florida had been home to about 158,000 Haitian TPS holders, the largest concentration in the country. Asked about people who had lived and worked here legally, he said he had met Haiti’s transitional government and its ambassador, claimed security forces now hold “about a quarter to half of the country,” and argued TPS was never meant to run “into perpetuity with no end.”⁠ ⁠ “The Biden administration, through enforcement, took the T off the program,” he said. Extending it indefinitely, he added, created “the wrong incentives” for return and for Haiti’s stabilization. He conceded that stabilization will take time. He still backed the cutoff.⁠ ⁠ He voted against a House measure that would have extended Haiti’s designation. Other Florida Republicans including Reps. Carlos Giménez and María Elvira Salazar warned that stripping work authorization from Haitian TPS holders would damage the state’s workforce.⁠ ⁠ Donalds offered the room praise, not a reversal. He is now asking the same electorate whose legal status he argued should expire to help send him to Tallahassee in November, where he faces Democrat David Jolly.⁠ ⁠ 📸 @byrondonalds⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Springfield’s Haitian community and its allies are demanding ICE leave the city, an immediate end to the ankle-monitor program, and justice for Pierre Damas Bel after the 20-year-old Wright State freshman died on Interstate 70 on Aug. 31. Bel was an honors graduate of Springfield High School, a varsity soccer player, National Honor Society member, and Marine Corps JROTC cadet who had just begun studying neuroscience. He arrived in the United States in 2024 through a lawful CBP One appointment, lived with family in Springfield, worked at Texas Roadhouse, and planned medical school. On July 29, after Temporary Protected Status for Haitians was terminated, ICE placed him on its Alternatives to Detention program and fitted him with a GPS ankle monitor while his asylum proceedings continued. Bel said so himself. In a July 30 Instagram post he wrote that he came to study, not to hurt anyone, yet was “walking through the streets of the United States with a GPS monitor on my leg, carrying a feeling of shame and humiliation.” On the morning of Aug. 31 he video-called his father. Shortly after, Ohio State Highway Patrol said he parked on the shoulder of I-70 near mile walked into westbound lanes, and was struck by a tanker truck. Family and community advocates say the death was a s**cide driven by the monitor’s stigma. ICE has rejected any responsibility. A spokesperson said Bel was placed on the monitor while proceedings continued, that no one is required to remain in the country and wear a device, and that “any attempt to blame ICE” is false. Officials have pointed to a voluntary “self-deport” option with a government-arranged flight. That answer has not quieted Springfield. Faith leaders, the Haitian Support Center, G92, and neighbors have held press conferences, a peace walk, and rallies under the banner “Unshackle Springfield.” They describe the monitors as modern shackles placed on people with pending cases, not convictions. The demands now are: ICE out of Springfield. End the ankle-monitor program. Justice for Pierre Damas Bel. Restore dignity to a community that came legally, worked, studied, and filled classrooms and pews. 🎥 @Pslcolumbus #lunionsuite

Haiti has tightened controls at its northern border with the Dominican Republic, blocking several types of Dominican goods from entering by land through the Dajabón–Ouanaminthe crossing.⁠ ⁠ Haitian police were stationed at the border bridge Monday as authorities began enforcing restrictions on products that regularly move through the busy commercial crossing. The affected goods include wheat flour, cooking oil, pasta, butter, margarine, drinking water, powdered juice, soft drinks, beer, snacks, detergent, plastic household items, construction iron and heavy construction equipment.⁠ ⁠ Mathieu Thierry, the Haitian customs collector in Ouanaminthe, was at the crossing as security personnel were instructed not to allow products included on the restricted list to enter. According to the reported directive, affected exports will instead have to enter Haiti by air or through seaports rather than through the Dajabón land crossing.⁠ ⁠ The move could have an immediate impact on merchants, drivers and families who depend on the binational market between Dajabón and Ouanaminthe for their livelihoods. It also comes as Haitian authorities continue efforts to strengthen control over goods entering the country through the Dominican Republic.⁠ ⁠ This policy did not begin today. In March 2025, Haiti's Ministry of Economy and Finance issued a circular ordering that foreign goods arriving through the Dominican Republic could no longer enter Haiti through land customs offices and instead had to arrive by sea. The order also called for Haitian customs, police and armed forces to increase surveillance along the land border.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Veronique M. Pierre, Founder and CEO of Roses Without Thorns, Inc., is promoting the organization’s upcoming Mental Health Awareness & Community Empowerment Event, taking place October 24.⁠ ⁠ Pierre, a former Miss International World Haiti, author, educator, model, actress, entrepreneur and Certified Mental Health Advocate, shares the message “Blooming is a Lifestyle,” centered on personal growth, self-care and giving back to the community.⁠ ⁠ The October 24 event will feature conversations on mental health, healthy relationships, financial wellness, wealth, self-love and building healthier communities, along with guest speakers and special guests.⁠ ⁠ Those interested in attending can RSVP through Eventbrite.⁠ ⁠ Connect with Veronique M. Pierre & Roses Without Thorns, Inc.:⁠ Instagram: @veroniquempierre⁠ TikTok: @veroniquempierre⁠ Eventbrite: Mental Health Awareness & Community Empowerment Event⁠ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mental-health-awareness-and-community-empowerment-event-tickets-1999622817676⁠ ⁠ #AD #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Four people were taken to the hospital Monday morning after a construction crane collapsed in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, damaging several vehicles and sparking a fire.⁠ ⁠ Miami Fire Rescue responded shortly after 8:30 a.m. near Brickell Bay Drive and Southeast 12th Street. Officials said the collapse damaged three vehicles.⁠ ⁠ Among those hospitalized were two construction workers. A woman driving a white SUV was able to escape after realizing the crane was falling. Her vehicle later caught fire, according to fire rescue officials. Crews carried out a complex rescue operation at the scene.⁠ ⁠ Authorities have not yet said what caused the crane to collapse. The investigation is ongoing, and drivers in the area should expect road closures and delays as crews continue working at the scene.⁠ 🎥: @nbc6 #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

After more than six years away from full concerts, Céline Dion is officially back on stage; a comeback that may feel especially meaningful for many Haitian fans who grew up listening to her music.⁠ ⁠ The Canadian superstar made her emotional return Saturday night at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, near Paris, opening her new residency with the French-language favorite “On ne change pas.” Dion was moved to tears during the opening song as the audience welcomed her back.⁠ ⁠ Her return comes after a difficult health journey. Dion revealed in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms and forced her to step away from touring. Saturday's show marked her first full concert since March 2020.⁠ ⁠ For many Haitians, Céline Dion's music has been familiar for generations. Her French-language songs have been heard at Haitian weddings, family gatherings and celebrations, giving her a connection with Haitian listeners that goes beyond her international hits. Haitian cultural writers have even reflected on how deeply her music became woven into those spaces.⁠ ⁠ Dion performed for more than two hours Saturday, delivering a 25-song set that included “Pour que tu m’aimes encore,” “All By Myself” and “My Heart Will Go On.” The night launched a series of Paris concerts scheduled into 2027.⁠ ⁠ For fans who wondered whether they would ever see her perform a full concert again, Céline Dion's return was more than a comeback. It was a chance to hear one of music's most recognizable voices doing what she loves again.⁠ ⁠ 🎥: @voguefrance | @nas.archive.s | 📸: @lofficielparis⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

The United Arab Emirates has announced $10 million U.S. dollars (USD) in emergency humanitarian assistance for Haiti, with the funding aimed at helping families affected by the country's ongoing humanitarian crisis.⁠ ⁠ The aid will support food assistance, shelter, health care, clean water, sanitation and hygiene services, along with medicines, medical supplies and equipment. The program will focus especially on internally displaced people and other vulnerable communities.⁠ ⁠ The assistance will be delivered through the Emirates Red Crescent, with humanitarian partners helping respond to urgent needs on the ground. The UAE said the initiative comes under the direction of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.⁠ ⁠ The announcement comes as many Haitian families continue to face displacement and difficulty accessing food, health care and other basic necessities.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Nigerian Afrobeats star @heisrema is bringing a touch of Haiti into his latest release.⁠ ⁠ Rema dropped his new single “Oh No” on September 11, blending his Afropop sound with kompa, dancehall and reggaeton influences. The track was produced by Jamaican producer Rvssian and leans into guitar-driven Caribbean rhythms while keeping Rema’s melodic style at the center.⁠ ⁠ For Haitians, the kompa influence stands out. The genre was developed in Haiti in the 1950s and has grown far beyond the country, influencing music throughout the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Haitian diaspora.⁠ ⁠ The release is another example of how Haitian music continues to travel across borders and find its way into sounds from artists around the world.⁠ ⁠ “Oh No” is now available on major streaming platforms, with a music video accompanying the release.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Florida health officials are warning residents to protect themselves from mosquitoes as locally acquired dengue cases continue to rise across the state, with the Tampa Bay area seeing the largest increase.⁠ ⁠ Hillsborough County has become the center of the outbreak. According to the latest figures reported by the Florida Department of Health, the county reached 95 locally acquired dengue cases for the week ending September 5, compared with 59 the week before. Cases have also been reported in other parts of Florida, including Pinellas, Orange and Miami-Dade counties.⁠ ⁠ “Locally acquired” means the person was infected by a mosquito in Florida rather than while traveling outside the country. Dengue is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito and can cause fever, severe muscle and joint pain, headaches and rash.⁠ ⁠ Mosquito-control teams are responding with increased surveillance, inspections and targeted spraying. Orange County, for example, expanded mosquito treatments after confirming a locally acquired dengue case earlier this month.⁠ ⁠ Health officials are asking residents to drain standing water around their homes, use mosquito repellent and cover exposed skin when possible.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Florida’s Board of Governors voted unanimously to bar students who are not lawfully present in the United States from enrolling in the state’s 12 public universities beginning with the 2027-28 academic year.⁠ ⁠ The regulation, approved without debate after earlier preliminary approval in June, applies to any university that did not admit all academically qualified applicants in the two most recent academic years. Because all 12 State University System campuses operate selective admissions, the rule effectively closes those institutions to new undocumented students. Currently enrolled students are not affected.⁠ ⁠ The university ban follows a June vote by the Florida Board of Education that already prohibited undocumented students from the state’s 28 public colleges and most adult education and GED programs. Together, the two policies shut undocumented students out of public higher education in Florida. The state now joins Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina in imposing such restrictions.⁠ ⁠ Legislative bills that would have achieved a similar result died in committee during the 2026 session. The boards then used their rulemaking authority to adopt the limits. Lt. Gov. Jay Collins called the university rule “common sense,” saying public universities are for students who are here legally and that taxpayers should not subsidize those who “broke our laws to come here.”⁠ ⁠ Critics, including United Faculty of Florida president Robert Cassanello, described the move as overreach that closes educational doors and limits the system’s ability to educate future workers. Exact current enrollment figures for undocumented students are not published, but earlier counts of out-of-state tuition waiver users put the number at roughly 2,000 at universities and more than 4,600 at state colleges in 2024-25. Broader estimates of undocumented students in Florida higher education have been far higher.⁠ ⁠ Private universities are not covered by the rule. Online students studying from outside the United States also remain eligible. The policy takes effect for new enrollments in fall 2027.⁠ ⁠ Video Source: @Wfla⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican #haitian