Triangle residents brace for impact of travel ban: 'What's the next step?'

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- As the latest travel ban from the Trump administration nears its effective date, ABC11 is hearing from residents with ties to the impacted countries about what it all means.

Haiti is one of the 12 countries whose citizens will be banned from traveling into the United States starting at 12:01 am on Monday, with certain limited exceptions. That ban does not have an end date, and both Haitian Americans in the Triangle and Haitian citizens with ties in North Carolina say they're concerned about the long-term implications.

"If my parents were banned, there would be no Dominique. So it's just, it's a hard realization," said Dominique Alphonse-Sainvil, a first-generation Haitian American whose parents immigrated to the US in the 1960s.

Alphonse-Sainvil was born and raised in the US, but her ties to her parents' -- and husband's -- home country run deep.

"Being first generation Haitian, you do understand the shoulders that you stand on," she said.

The North Raleigh resident now helps to run the Carolina Haitian Women's Society, a Triangle-based organization with chapters across the state. She said the fallout from Haiti's inclusion in the White House's most recent travel ban has been difficult to process.

"What's the next step?" she asked. "Because that's all both those that are here and those that have loved ones in Haiti are truly trying to grasp."

It's also creating new challenges for Haitians involved in philanthropic efforts, like Pastor Jean Alix Paul.

"They sent me some news and told me, 'Hey, you will not be able to come'. And I was very shocked. So, I mean, I didn't, you know, I never expected that to happen," Paul said, recounting a recent, planned trip to the US he had to cancel.

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Paul regularly visits Raleigh through his church's affiliation with Raleigh's Hope Community Church. The pastor also helps run Together 4 Haiti, a non-profit that aims to support Haiti's kids through education. He says he's unsure how their work will continue in light of the travel ban.

"We have more than 200 people working for our organization, so now we don't know how long that will impact us, and if we will continue to be able to help our people. It will be very, very hard," he said.

Paul added that amid gang violence and domestic instability in his home country, it's been nearly impossible to get answers in Haiti.

"Where the US embassy is located, actually, there is a gang right there," he said. "So, it's not very easy to go through."

According to the White House, the ban -- which impacts 19 countries in total -- is to "protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes."

Alphonse-Sainvil said the people impacted are much more than that.

"I know we have plenty to contribute both from here and those that are there," she said. "But you can't help but not be just completely, as we call it, 'desolate'".