Our Delaware is a monthly series that explores the history of communities around the First State and the ties that bind them. To suggest a potential topic for an upcoming feature, email Editor-In-Chief Jacob Owens.
Why Should Delaware Care?
There are at least 5,000 Haitian residents who have established a growing sense of community through churches, businesses and homeownership in Delaware. Today, they are among the fastest-growing immigrant populations in the state.
Keda Dorisca’s mom would always cook tons of food, oftentimes too much for her family. But it was always enough for her community.
She never knew who would be coming over, so she had to be prepared. Sure enough, other Haitian immigrants would stop by Dorisca’s Georgetown home to pick up a plate of food, usually on their way to or coming back from work at one of Sussex County’s poultry plants.
At the time, Delaware’s Haitian population was a small yet tenacious community of immigrants who fled tumultuous conditions in their home country for a better life in the First State. While resources were scant at times, help was never far away.
“Everybody lent a hand to one another,” said Dorisca, co-founder and co-chair of the Delaware Haitian Coalition. “Everybody understood that we were all coming here for a reason.”
When not at work, many Haitian families spent their entire Sundays in church, sometimes coming home at 9 or 10 p.m., relishing in the burgeoning sense of community and service within those four walls.
Rental leases often were handed off between immigrant families as they moved between Southern Delaware homes. Some entrepreneurial residents traveled to Washington, D.C., to stock up on treasured Haitian ingredients, establishing mobile markets from their vans and selling the comfort fare across Delaware’s various Haitian hubs.
Delaware’s Haitian community for decades has been forged by faith, entrepreneurship and resiliency. As the Haitian immigrant population has grown, so too has its visibility across the First State – spanning politics, businesses, homeownership and religion.
Migration from Haiti to Delaware traces back to the 1980s and is marked by significant political and economic events in the island nation’s history. Violence, persecution and natural disasters have all forced Haitians to flee their homes in search of opportunity in the First State.
“It’s a story of resiliency,” Dorisca said of the state’s Haitian community.
The population boomed in 2023 when then-President Joe Biden established humanitarian parole programs to encourage safe and orderly pathways to the U.S. from Haiti for up to 30,000 immigrants each month to live and work here for up to two years.
In 2023, nearly 5,000 Haitians lived in Delaware with Haitian Creole being the primary language spoken at home in 5,607 households in the state, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Today, under the Trump administration’s increased immigration enforcement, many Haitians live in fear of deportation, job loss and the potential reversal of their temporary protected legal status.
Some families have even moved to Canada in hopes of better living conditions.
‘A story of resiliency’
Pastor Guy Danjoint stood amid the latest — but not final — iteration of the church that his father founded nearly 35 years ago.
Flashing lights danced around the second-floor room as the band serenaded the growing crowd from the corner. Only a thin sliver of sunlight managed to eke through a window in the corner of the space.
Over a hundred people harmonized in a Haitian Creole prayer hymn that could be heard from the street outside the Haitian Evangelical International Ministries Church in Dover on a recent Sunday morning.
The congregation first began in 1991 as a Haitian Creole service time at First Pilgrim Baptist Church in Camden, Delaware. From there, the mass migrated to event spaces at the Sheraton Hotel and the Residence Inn before outgrowing them too.
“There were some Sundays when people didn’t have a place to sit down, and it was hurting me to see that,” Danjoint said.
Migration from Haiti was first sparked by the repressive conditions imposed under the nearly 30-year dictatorship of Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son, whose reign ended in 1986. The dictatorship was marked by human rights abuses and a mass exodus of Haitians fleeing the country to Florida in the following decades.
A catastrophic earthquake in 2010 and the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 intensified the conditions in the country. As a result, thousands of Haitians fled their homes due to the political unrest and harsh violence imposed by gangs.
“In order for somebody to take the risk, to come to this country illegally, it has to be an act of desperation,” said Midline Oware, co-founder and co-chair of the Delaware Haitian Coalition.
Oware moved to the U.S. from Haiti when she was 4 years old. She recognized that growing up in an immigrant household came with struggles and scarcity at times, but there was always a “sense of community,” she said.
“There was always a sense of this village mentality,” Oware said.
In the ’90s and early 2000s, Delaware’s Haitian community was small but extremely tight-knit. Community hubs primarily formed around Seaford, Milford and Dover as folks were attracted by steady work at the nearby poultry plants and other agricultural jobs.
Marie Fontaine St Pierre recalled that her Sundays were consumed by church as a child. Her family would arrive for mass in Georgetown in the morning, spend the day at the pastor’s house, and then return for the afternoon service.
St Pierre, who first came to the U.S. from Haiti when she was 12 years old, grew up and became one of the first Haitian Realtors in Delaware. She helped dozens of Haitian immigrants buy their first homes and establish their lives in the First State.
“We are still helping one another in the ways that we can,” St Pierre said.
Haitian community booms in First State
In January 2023, then-President Biden established a humanitarian parole program for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, to come to the U.S. through “safe and orderly pathways,” given they passed rigorous background checks and had a sponsor willing to host them.
The program allowed for 30,000 people from each country to come in each month for a period of two years. Nearly 214,000 Haitians were granted parole through the program as of August 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
In March, the Trump administration attempted to end the program, but the order was subsequently challenged in court. In May, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to temporarily pause the program that allowed over half a million people to legally enter and work in the U.S.
The program led to an exponential increase in the number of Haitians in Delaware, a trend reflected in the number of Haitian-owned businesses across the state. New Haitian markets, restaurants and churches are now peppered throughout Delaware’s three counties, especially in Milford, Dover and Seaford.
For Felix Sainte, the community growth was an avenue to showcase Haitian cuisine to a whole new audience. In November, Sainte came together with other Haitian chefs, promoters and advocates to open Le Boulevard Bar & Grill in Dover.
“We are a big community that’s growing,” Sainte said. “It’s a big change from where we started.”
The restaurant features authentic Haitian dishes and incorporates Haitian seasonings and ingredients for new takes on classic fare.
Sainte’s restaurant, however, has not been immune to the fear and uncertainty that has shaken the Haitian community amid increased immigration enforcement. Some patrons have expressed fear of being targeted by immigration agents if they leave their homes, leading to dampened weekend traffic.
Despite the newfound fears, Delaware’s Haitian community continues to grow, building upon decades of resilience. Even as the population expands, its trademark principle doesn’t fade – a helping hand is never far away.
Get Involved
Visit some of Delaware’s Haitian-owned organizations and restaurants to learn more about the growing Haitian community.