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ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - There’s an estimated 36,000 Haitians living in Central Florida and they’re reacting to President Trump’s comments about their country.
“I look at a lot of the community partners that have helped raise us like a village and I feel that those comments are an insult that all that they have contributed to our society,” said Pastor David Jacques, Lead Pastor of the Kingdom Church.
As the son of a Haitian immigrants and pastor of the largely Haitian Kingdom Church in Orlando, Pastor Jacques says he’s disheartened by President’s Trump’s comments about Haiti.
“It is disheartening because when I look at my parents that’s not what I see, when I look at my parents I see hard workers who came here struggled, just to give us a better life,” Jacques said.
With Friday being the eight year anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, Jacques says it brings the conversation full circle -- knowing many link those images of destruction and devastation, labeling the country, but he says it won’t limit them.
“My hope is that it will inspire individuals to say I’m going to live my life to prove them wrong, that statement wrong, the misconceptions wrong, or the labels wrong,” Jacques said.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S. says he and the Haitian government "vehemently condemn" the president's remark.