A jubilant West Indian American Day Parade spread across a brightly colored belt of Brooklyn on Monday. Bass drums boomed and reggae blared from floats that passed through the smoke of countless grills and food stands. Headdresses studded with jewels shared the streets with wings made of tissue paper.
But to many, the day was striking for who was missing.
A June decision by the Supreme Court that allowed President Trump to end the Temporary Protected Status program singled out multiple countries, including Haiti, a vital and vibrant presence in the New York City’s West Indian communities. The program had granted people from troubled countries permission to stay in the United States until it was safe to return home.
On Monday, it appeared that there was a smaller Haitian presence at this year’s parade.
Jackie Des, who set up her food stand on Utica Avenue and President Street while it was still dark out, said that hours later she had yet to sell a single plate of Haitian rice and peas.
“A lot of Haitians used to come out. But this year I don’t see many of them,” Ms. Des, 50, said. “You see one suffer and all of us suffer.”
Along the route on Eastern Parkway, Dapheney Henry, 29, said she spent over an hour looking for a group of Haitians to walk with.
“Any Haitians,” Ms. Henry said as she watched floats go by near Utica Avenue. “Normally it’s a whole crowd, like, on every block.”
In years past, Ms. Henry — the daughter of Haitian immigrants — said she usually found her community by listening for their music. But this year, she said, “we haven’t heard one lick.”
There were signs of solidarity. About a dozen nurses on a New York State Nursing Association float waved signs that said “restore Haitian T.P.S.”
Among them was Deborah Williams, 50, who said at least 10 of her Haitian colleagues — T.P.S. holders — have left NYC Health And Hospitals/McKinney near East Flatbush since the ruling went into effect on Aug. 5. Some others, she said, are going to leave their jobs soon.
“It’s very sad,” Ms. Williams, whose family immigrated from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said. “I have to march for the rights of the Haitians.”
At an annual West Indian American Day V.I.P. breakfast, held before the parade, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the Caribbean communities in Brooklyn had been “tested by this federal government.”
“It is a mosaic of a diaspora that every day showcases what it can look like to stand up to that cruelty, to celebrate freedom and to show that this city would not be the city we love were it not also for this diaspora,” he said as he spoke next to Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James and Buju Banton, a hit reggae artist.
And yet throughout a day gifted with mild temperatures and a cloudless blue sky, the parade swayed along as in recent years, with spectators draped in their countries’ flags and dancers painted from the predawn J’ouvert festival, which marks the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean.
Lavern Lawrence, 44, danced with her daughter and mother on the grassy median that divides sections of Eastern Parkway. They were all dressed in T-shirts featuring the Jamaican flag.
Ms. Lawrence said she had been to the parade at least 20 times. “Jamaicans are everywhere,” she said, looking out at a sea of yellow and green. “We always show up and show out.”
Nearby, Shanee Moss, 30, and her younger sister jumped in place as they watched hundreds of people in the procession wave their countries’ flags.
“This is like Christmas,” said Ms. Moss, who wore a Bermuda flag head wrap. “We having a ball.”
As Monday morning rolled into afternoon, there were two reported incidents of violence in the area, before the parade began.
The police said that shortly before dawn, three men were stabbed at Carroll Street and Utica Avenue, near where J’ouvert celebrations had continued throughout the night. One of the men, 32, was listed in critical condition later at Kings County Hospital, where the other two men, ages 23 and 36, were treated for lesser injuries. There was no immediate arrest.
Minutes later and about a mile away, around 6 a.m., a 25-year-old man was slashed in the face at Eastern Parkway and Nostrand Avenue, the police said. His attacker also fled.
At a news conference last week, Police Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch said the West Indian American Day parade in Brooklyn would end half an hour earlier than normal to curb the violence of past years.
Top of mind for many, though, was Haiti.
City councilwoman Rita Joseph, herself a Haitian immigrant, said many in her Brooklyn district were among the 300,000 Haitians who have had permission to live and work in the United States since 1990.
“I watched a lot of my neighbors, friends, families, the constituents that I represent have their status taken away overnight,” she said.
She said the Brooklyn B35 bus, which is typically teeming with Haitian home health aides on the way to work, has felt empty during the morning commute. So have the churches and the hair salons. But she hoped they saw Monday as a day to band together.
“This celebration intersects with fear for my community,” she said. “But we’re going to dance, and we’re going to organize at the same time.”
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