Guy L. Smith of Greenwich has a new book out: “HAITI: The American Dilemma!” which is now available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.
Guy L. Smith of Greenwich. Contributed photo
Greenwich resident Guy L. Smith’s new book, HAITI: The American Dilemma!, takes readers on a difficult journey through Haiti’s history, America’s long relationship with the country, and today’s immigration dilemma. It asks a deliberately uncomfortable question: can the United States enforce its borders and immigration laws without sacrificing due process, truth, restraint and basic human dignity?
Smith does not argue for open borders or abandonment of immigration law. Instead, the book sets up stark choices about how government power is exercised.
It argues that lawful enforcement and humane treatment are not opposites, and that constitutional principles matter most when government acts against people who are vulnerable, unpopular or politically powerless.
Much of the book is sharply critical of the Trump Administration’s immigration program. Smith characterizes elements of the Administration’s approach as extremist and nationalistic and argues that actions by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have too often crossed the line from enforcement into cruelty, chaos and disregard for due process. The book challenges readers to decide for themselves whether such conduct reflects the American values they wish their government to represent.
Haiti provides the lens. Across fourteen chapters and a conclusion, Smith moves from Haitian history and U.S. policy to asylum, detention, deportation, race, Christianity, constitutional protections and political rhetoric. He argues that America’s treatment of Haitians exposes contradictions larger than any single immigration case: between security and mercy, law and unchecked power, partisan loyalty and personal conscience.
The questions are no longer distant from Connecticut. A four-day ICE operation in southern Connecticut in August resulted in 118 arrests. Recent enforcement has included an arrest at Tweed New Haven Airport and, in Meriden, an ICE courthouse arrest followed by a confrontation in which one activist said she was pepper-sprayed and another was taken by ambulance after being pushed to the ground. Connecticut officials have sought answers from DHS about the scope and conduct of recent operations.
Those events give the book’s central question a distinctly local urgency. Smith’s argument is not that immigration law should disappear. It is that Americans must decide what limits they expect when enormous government power is exercised over human beings. The choices, the book insists, belong not only to presidents, courts or agencies, but ultimately to citizens.
HAITI: The American Dilemma! is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HJ9Q5X2Z
