New York is home to the highest Haitian immigrant population after Florida, and the largest Haitian community in New York City is in Brooklyn’s “Little Haiti," represented in the State Assembly by Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. 

She also happens to be the first Haitian American woman elected to political office in the city. 

Bichotte Hermelyn has been at the forefront in the fight to get Haiti the help it needs and to create a fair field for Haitians living in and attempting to enter the United States. 

The Assemblywoman joined In Focus to talk about the situation on the ground in Haiti, a nation beset by poverty and instability for decades and still suffering the after-effects of a devastating earthquake in 2010, followed by a cholera outbreak that lasted nine years and Hurricane Matthew in 2016. 

She also speaks about the letter she authored, co-signed by many of her colleagues in New York politics, that she send to President Biden and his administration, asking them to make the path to asylum easier for Haitians, and to urge them to protect Temporary Protected Status for Haitians which was taken away by the Trump Administration and is set to return on August 3.