Heather Wasler is surrounded by the sound of hymns sung in Haitian Creole when she attends weekly Presbyterian service at the Hope New Worshiping Community in Charleroi. Among her friends and neighbors, she listens to the call to worship spoken in Creole, then translated to English. When the local church formed last September with the goal of becoming a communal place of worship and giving back to residents, Wasler approached some of the Haitian women in the community to ask what the church could provide for them.

They asked for a safe place for their children to play.

Southwestern Pennsylvania’s Haitian immigrant community has felt heightened tensions for more than a year and a half since then-candidate Donald Trump claimed they were straining resources and ruining quality of life in Charleroi, a Washington County borough where hundreds had settled. Late last year President Trump’s administration revoked the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation that allowed Haitians to live and work in the United States while violence and instability rocked their home country, though that revocation was halted by a judge and is now before the Supreme Court.

Even with the support of friends and neighbors, the recent death of Haitian immigrant Daphy Michel, following ICE detention, elevated the community’s worries.

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✍️📸: @sophiaalucentee