a1268: Center to file suit for asylum-seekers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami Herald

March 15 2002


Center to file suit for asylum-seekers

The Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center is expected to file a class-action
lawsuit in federal court today on behalf of 240 Haitian asylum-seekers who
are being detained in jail, at the Krome Detention Center, or at a local
hotel.

The center claims the Immigration and Naturalization Service has refused to
release any Haitians since early December, which speeds up their
proceedings, preventing them from obtaining legal representation and earning
asylum on merit.

All the detainees, according to the INS, have a ''credible fear of
persecution,'' the first necessary step toward gaining asylum. FIAC
Executive Director Cheryl Little said she learned only last week -- during a
visit by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. -- that the INS had a new policy in
place not to release the asylum-seekers. ''I believe it's a racist policy,''
she said.



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