What is an American? “An independent person, who has freedoms, who can follow their dreams, who can live freely without fears of social unrest…I do feel that I am an American.” -Jean Michelle Mitch Jean Michelle Mitch is a twenty-year-old student at St.John’s University in Queens. In 2003, when he was 10 years old, his family immigrated from Haiti to the United States after life-threatening situations were encountered: “My mother… she encountered threatening situations a few times; she got held at gunpoint by somebody.” Mitch and his family were fortunate to obtain a lawyer in America, and they are currently obtain asylum status while waiting for citizenship…other Haitian immigrants are not as lucky. Haitians in New York Almost 25% of the population living in Rockland County’s Spring Valley Villages (in NY) is Haitian–that’s the...