MIAMI — Unable to continue with his expansion and with his community hurting, Miami’s Haitian-Bahamian Chef Wilkinson “Ken” Sejour recently said he regrets voting for President Donald Trump.
Sejour, who founded Chef Creole restaurants in 1992, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention scared away clients, and the end of the Temporary Protected Status created a labor shortage.
“I was under the impression, like everyone else, that him being a business person that he understands how business is conducted and how he’s able to grow and make businesses more effective,” Sejour said.
Sejour is now among the entrepreneurs in South Florida who say Trump’s push for deportations has had a chilling effect on their businesses.
“I can’t support a candidate that is having this ripple negative effect on our community, on our economy,” Sejour said.
ICE stopped a man, who was riding a scooter, and detained him on Aug. 2, steps away from the drive-thru area of Sejour’s restaurant, at 200 NW 54th St., in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on June 25 allowed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to end Temporary Protected Status and work permits for about 300,000 Haitians on July 27. Some of them were his employees.
Sejour said changing his mind about Trump and disclosing it has been painful.
“We make decisions being based on it being beneficial not just to our business but to our community,” Sejour said.
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