If you read Peter Brimelow’s Alien Nation, you’ll find that Haitian immigration was a problem even in the 90s, when then-President Bill Clinton was “forced to order the interception of boats carrying would-be illegal immigrants from Haiti on the high seas” because of America’s “inability to expel asylum seekers” [Alien Nation, p.27].
Rosenthal thought the Haitians were the same as the pre-1924 Ellis Island immigrants, and O’Rourke thought that just by illegally floating to America (endangering their own lives and the lives of their children) the Haitians had shown the gumption that America needs.
I’m not sure that either man had met a Haitian at this point. Haitians are different from Americans in a number of ways.
In Springfield, OH, which has been stricken by a huge wave of Haitian immigrants, they are still arguing about whether local Haitians are eating cats, dogs, and ducks and geese out of parks.