News: Will & Jada-Pinkett Smith in Haiti for Education

Jeriah Mast, a 45-year-old former American missionary from Millersburg, Ohio, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, September 8, to two federal counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors in Haiti. Mast entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent in Cleveland. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors and the defense agreed that a sentence between 25 and 33 years would be appropriate; the judge will have the final say. Sentencing is scheduled for December 15, 2026. The U.S. Department of Justice said Mast traveled from the United States to Haiti on numerous occasions between 2002 and 2019, including work with Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries (CAM). Investigators documented more than 30 flights he took between the two countries from November 2002 to August 2018. A federal indictment originally charged Mast with four counts involving four boys in Haiti, with alleged offenses in 2004, 2007, and 2011. As part of the plea, he admitted guilt in two of those cases, each involving a minor between the ages of 12 and 16. Prosecutors are expected to seek dismissal of the remaining two charges. The admitted conduct is part of a broader pattern Mast himself described to police in 2019. According to court records and contemporaneous reporting, he told investigators he had sexually abused more than 30 boys in Haiti & four children in Ohio. He previously pleaded guilty in Ohio state court to two counts of gross sexual imposition, received a 9-year sentence, and was granted early release in October 2025 before the federal charges proceeded. “Jeriah Mast preyed on vulnerable children while working in Haiti as a missionary,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division. U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said Mast “violated the innocence of children & violated the trust of those who supported his supposed missionary work.” CAM, supported by Amish, conservative Mennonite, & related groups, has said it fired Mast in 2019 after the allegations became public. The organization drew separate international attention in 2021 when 17 of its missionaries were kidnapped in Haiti. #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

Three of the Haitian music industry’s most recognizable names did not roll on Eastern Parkway for this year’s West Indian American Day Parade. The West Indian American Day Carnival Association says T-Vice, Tony Mix and SakPase Nation were barred because they failed to meet carnival rules. The bands tell a different story. T-Vice says it was not refused and chose to stay off the route. Tony Mix publicly announced he would not take part.⁠ ⁠ The annual parade stepped off Monday, Sept. 7, along Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway. Days earlier, The Haitian Times reported that WIADCA had kept the three groups off the official lineup. As of that Thursday, five other Haitian groups had been approved to participate. Haitian flags, mas and music were still on the Parkway. The missing piece was the big konpa trucks that usually stop traffic.⁠ ⁠ Cecile Ford is WIADCA’s board secretary and chair of the Mas Committee. She said organizers had warned the groups that the rules would be enforced.⁠ ⁠ “We’ve tried to work with them and each year there was a promise… they just take it as a joke,” Ford said. Ford later pointed to overcrowding on trucks as a safety problem.“We have pictures & photos [they] were not compliant with the number of people they have on their trucks, which is a security issue & safety issue,” she said.⁠ ⁠ WIADCA’s written rules state only bands with a WIADCA permit can enter the parade. Participants must be costumed. Artist trucks, advertising trucks and “T-shirt bands” are excluded. Band leaders are required to put marshals on the route, keep vehicles insured and stay within height and safety limits set with police and the city. Failure to comply can mean removal from the parade.⁠ ⁠ T-Vice answered Ford by name. The band said it was not refused. T-Vice said the Parkway absence was its own choice, while the carnival association said the group was barred. Tony Mix also spoke with an official announcement circulated that he would not take part in the 2026 Labor Day carnival. SakPase Nation did not respond.⁠ ⁠ Haitian mas and music was still on the route, including Lespri Ayiti and RAM among groups carrying the Haitian presence.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

KidSuper founder Colm Dillane and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso hosted the second annual People’s Runway on the building’s steps, spotlighting five rising Brooklyn designers chosen from hundreds of applicants. The night was built as a platform for talent that usually gets shut out of official Fashion Week calendars. Then @WyclefJean walked out and changed the temperature.⁠ ⁠ The Haitian-born Fugees architect opened with “No Woman, No Cry,” slid into a Brooklyn rap, and brought Carnival dancers in exploding color onto the steps. He stepped off briefly, then returned with “a friend.” Lauryn Hill appeared in a painted KidSuper coat. The front row surged the runway with phones up. They delivered Fugees heat, including “Ready or Not” 30 years after The Score dropped and rewrote what hip-hop could sound like.⁠ ⁠ Both artists wore KidSuper. The moment was brief, loud, and exactly the kind of collision the brand lives for: fashion, music, community, and no velvet rope.⁠ ⁠ Dillane has spent years turning KidSuper into more than clothes, painting, music, unexpected stages. This edition doubled down on that. After the emerging designers showed, he sent out a handful of his own looks, including one worn by his mother, then handed the night to Wyclef. Reynoso kept the energy Brooklyn-loud: if you like it, cheer. Everybody’s VIP here.⁠ ⁠ For Haitian and Caribbean audiences, the night landed differently. Wyclef Jean remains one of the most visible Haitian artists of his generation, guitar, politics, carnival energy, and a catalog that never stayed in one lane. Seeing him pull Lauryn Hill onto the steps of a public building in Brooklyn, wearing a local designer’s coat, felt like the culture showing up for itself without asking permission.⁠ ⁠ The People’s Runway is still young. Dillane has already said he wants it to become annual and that the real measure is what the designers do after the lights go down. Saturday night gave them a stage, a crowd that included athletes and artists, and a closing act that most official Fashion Week shows never get.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican #haitian

The Broward County School Board on Tuesday considered giving Superintendent Howard Hepburn authority to begin the district's process for renaming Sawgrass Springs Middle School, at 12500 West Sample Road, in honor of the late Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer. No new name has been proposed.⁠ ⁠ District staff wrote that Metayer was deeply involved with the Sawgrass Springs school community, building relationships with students, families, educators, and staff. Naming the school for her, the item states, would recognize her legacy of education, service, environmental stewardship, and care for others.⁠ ⁠ Metayer, 38, was elected to the Coral Springs City Commission in 2020, becoming the city's first Black and Haitian-American woman commissioner. She was re-elected in 2024 and appointed vice mayor in December 2024, then appointed to a second term in the role in November 2025.⁠ ⁠ A first-generation Haitian-American born in Broward County and raised in Coral Springs, Metayer graduated from Coral Springs Charter School, earned a bachelor's degree in environmental science from Florida A&M University, and a Master of Health Science from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She worked as an environmental scientist on disaster relief and climate resilience efforts, including after Hurricanes Irma, Michael, and Dorian. Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried had described her as the party's vice chair of Haitian outreach.⁠ ⁠ Metayer was found dead in her Coral Springs home on April 1. Her husband, Stephen Bowen, was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence; he has pleaded not guilty.⁠ ⁠ In April, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz introduced legislation to rename the U.S. Postal Service facility at 3255 NW 94th Avenue the "Nancy Metayer Post Office Building." The bill cleared the House Oversight Committee in July and awaits a vote by the full House.⁠ ⁠ Tuesday's school board item only starts the renaming process; a final name change would still require community input and subsequent board votes.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican #haitian

See You In Jamaica!! Haiti’s national team will play its first competitive matches since the 2026 World Cup this month, opening Concacaf Nations League play with two games at Sabina Park. Match Calendar: 🇯🇲 Sept. 24 — Haiti vs. Trinidad and Tobago Sabina Park Stadium, Kingston, Jamaica 🇯🇲 Sept. 27 — Haiti vs. Costa Rica Sabina Park Stadium, Kingston, Jamaica 🇩🇴 Oct. 1 — Dominican Republic vs. Haiti Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez, Santo Domingo 🇨🇷 Oct. 4 — Costa Rica vs. Haiti Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá, San José, Costa Rica The Grenadiers face Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 9 p.m., then Costa Rica on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 9 p.m. Both matches will be played in Kingston because Haiti remains unable to host internationals at home. The window continues on the road. Haiti visits the Dominican Republic on Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. at Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez in Santo Domingo, then closes the stretch Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. against Costa Rica at Estadio Ricardo Saprissa in San José. The four fixtures are part of the 2026–27 Concacaf Nations League League A group stage. Haiti is drawn with Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Curaçao, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. The top two teams in the group advance toward the quarterfinals, with a path that also feeds into qualification for the 2027 Gold Cup. The timing matters. @FHFHaiti returned to the World Cup this summer for the first time since 1974 and exited the group stage after losses to Scotland, Brazil, and Morocco. The last match, a 4-2 defeat to Morocco in Atlanta, produced Haiti’s only two goals of the tournament. These Nations League dates are the first official matches since that campaign ended. For the diaspora, Kingston is the reachable stop. South Florida, Jamaica, and the wider Caribbean can get to Sabina Park in a way they cannot get to a home game in Port-au-Prince. Haiti will need points early. Costa Rica is the group’s most established side. Trinidad and Tobago is a familiar Caribbean rival. Two results in Kingston would give the Grenadiers a platform before the October trips to Santo Domingo and San José. #lunionsuite #haitianamerican #haitian

President Donald Trump has nominated Austin Holmes of Florida to serve as U.S. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Haiti, according to a slate of nominations transmitted to the Senate on September 14. Holmes must still be confirmed by the Senate before he can assume the post.⁠ ⁠ Holmes is CEO of RallyX and previously served as CEO of Caribbean Security Group and chairman of Mission of Hope. He has worked in Haiti since 2009, previously lived in the country, and speaks Haitian Creole. His biography and public testimony describe nearly two decades of work spanning humanitarian response, disaster logistics, education programs, private-sector operations, and high-risk security coordination.⁠ ⁠ The nomination arrives months after Holmes testified in February before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. He appeared alongside then-U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Henry Wooster at a hearing focused on Haiti’s security crisis and U.S. assistance. During that session, Holmes argued that security and freedom of movement must come first if humanitarian aid and longer-term recovery are to succeed. He also pressed for Haitian-led security capacity rather than an open-ended foreign presence.⁠ ⁠ The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince has been led by a chargé d’affaires since mid-2025 after Ambassador Dennis Hankins left the post. Wooster, who took charge of the mission in June 2025, was later nominated as ambassador to Kenya. The Haiti ambassadorship has therefore remained vacant while gangs continue to control large parts of Port-au-Prince and the country prepares for long-delayed elections.⁠ ⁠ If confirmed, Holmes would take one of Washington’s most difficult Caribbean assignments: a political transition, armed-group violence, humanitarian collapse, and the question of how U.S. security and assistance policy should be sequenced. His supporters point to on-the-ground experience, Creole fluency, and a security-first record. Senate confirmation will determine whether that background becomes official U.S. policy in Port-au-Prince.⁠ ⁠ #lunionsuite #haitianamerican

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