Haitian Americans: World Cup Pride Amid Immigration Fears

New York — 52 years since Haiti’s last World Cup goal, two strikes against Morocco on Wednesday ended a lifetime wait for Murielle Lodvil, 52.

She was among the crowds watching in bars and restaurants in New York’s Little Haiti district. Silence fell as fans followed the action on screen, then erupted in a chaotic first half: an equalizer, a go-ahead goal, and another equalizer.

Haiti entered the final group match against Morocco already eliminated, having lost to Scotland and Brazil in Group C. They conceded twice more, but the result did not dim the moment’s meaning for Lodvil.

As a birthday gift to herself, she bought tickets for her and her sister Barbara Albert, 41, to see Haiti face Brazil last week. “That is why it means so much to me that Haiti was in this world stage,” she said. “Every moment of this experience is valuable, ending with two goals, regardless of the outcome.”

Albert said the Brazil match experience highlighted the pride many supporters felt seeing Haiti back on the World Cup stage. “The representation is truly amazing. We’re so proud of our Haitian community. We really showed up for them,” she said.

Pride was also on display at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. The state is home to the second-largest Haitian community in the U.S., with about 113,000 residents of Haitian origin according to the 2024 American Community Survey. An hour before Haiti’s match against Brazil last week, Haitian flags were gone. Brazilian flags handed out at the entrance still lay on distribution tables. Thousands of people with wigs, Haiti jerseys, and flags draped over their shoulders filled the nearly 19,000-seat arena, with only a few wearing Brazil’s yellow and green.

In a sea of red and blue, Maude Schwartz waved a Haitian flag as she danced into the arena with her family. The 58-year-old Pilates studio owner moved to the U.S. from Haiti in 1990 on a student visa and came to soak up the World Cup atmosphere. “Oh, my whole family is here,” she said. But not everyone who wanted to could come. “I have a niece who keeps getting denied a visa to the U.S.,” she added.

Her experience reflects broader barriers for Haitian supporters. Travel bans imposed by the Trump administration, starting last year and expanded in January, prevented some, like her niece, from attending. Even players were affected. Defensive midfielder Woodensky Pierre, based in Haiti, could not travel to the U.S. to join the squad until 10 days before the opening match against Scotland on June 13.

“This is a global event and people shouldn’t be denied entry to this country,” said Jean-Marc, 55, a former Long Island Football League player wearing a Haiti jersey and a flag-colored wig. Born in the U.S. to Haitian parents, he spent part of his childhood in Haiti before returning in 1986 after the fall of the Duvalier regime. Watching Haiti play in the country he has lived in for decades, he called it “a big event for all Haitian people.”

Back in Flatbush, the Brooklyn neighborhood often called Little Haiti, Nadege Fleurimond opened her Haitian-Caribbean restaurant, BunNan, for every Haiti match, offering a place for those who could not afford tickets. She came to the U.S. from Haiti at age 7 and has seen immigration uncertainty affect nearly every Haitian family she knows. “I’m Haitian and I’m American,” she said. “America gave me opportunity, education, and the ability to build a business and create jobs. Haiti gave me my roots, my values, my resilience, and my culture.”

For Fleurimond, who grew up hearing more about what Haiti could not do than what it could, the team’s World Cup appearance was enough. “It’s proof that we belong in the rooms and on the stages where people often exclude us,” she added.