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Outside the YMCA on Tupper St. downtown, near where the Children’s Hospital used to be, dozens of Haitians newly arrived from the United States milled about Wednesday, clutching government documents and looking slightly lost, while Montreal Haitians of long standing came to lend a hand and load their cars with luggage.

“Haitians help Haitians,” one volunteer explained.

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Jean Dorméus was among Montreal’s flood of new arrivals. The secretary-general of a political youth group in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, Dorméus, 23, fled six months ago when individuals threatened to kill him and his family, he said. Since his father was likewise threatened and assassinated, Dorméus took the threat seriously. His mother and sister fled to neighbouring Dominican Republic and he flew to Mexico, then crossed into San Diego to ask for asylum.

He lived in Pennsylvania for six months, but in Donald Trump’s America, Dorméus was told, his chances for asylum were slim and odds of deportation strong.