a1440: Miami Herald Editorial: Justice denied Haitians (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

 Posted on Mon, Mar. 18, 2002

JUSTICE DENIED, AGAIN
FOR HAITIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS

Ernest Moise, who fled death threats in Haiti, was granted
political asylum by an immigration judge on Feb. 22. Yet he
and his two teenage sons remain locked up by the Miami
Immigration and Naturalization Service District. Advocates
for Haitian immigrants say that they now know why: unfair
treatment.

We, too, believe that the Miami INS District has been
applying a discriminatory policy designed to send Haitian
asylum seekers back home, regardless of the risk of
persecution. Advocates argue that the policy is
unconstitutional. The INS repeatedly has denied these
charges.

A lawsuit seeking class-action status filed last Friday
aims to stop the INS's policy. It charges that Haitians are
being mistreated because of their race and nationality. The
lawsuit also accuses the INS of violating its own
regulations as well as due-process and equal-protection
provisions of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit asks that
the Haitian refugees be freed and afforded a fair chance to
earn asylum.

POLICY OF DETAINMENT

Since December, the Miami INS District systematically has
detained Haitian asylum seekers and speeded up their asylum
proceedings -- a stark reversal of policy. This began after
an overloaded boat brought 170 Haitians to our shores on
Dec. 3.

Since then, virtually all Haitians who have been found to
have a credible fear of persecution if they were sent back
to Haiti -- the first hurdle in the asylum process -- have
been denied release. Even the handful who have been granted
asylum, including Mr. Moise, remain detained. The INS may
yet appeal those asylum grants.

Prior to December, the Miami INS District routinely
released almost all refugees who passed credible-fear
interviews -- including Haitians. It continues to do so for
other nationalities. Indeed, from Dec. 1 to Feb. 15, 91
percent of non-Haitians who passed the credible-fear test
were released, according to the lawsuit.

The new policy, in effect, prevents detained Haitians from
obtaining legal representation and damages their ability to
win asylum on merit. According to the lawyers filing the
lawsuit, some 240 Haitians remain locked up by the INS in
Miami. Most don't have lawyers. Yet asylum petitioners who
have legal representation are four to six times more likely
to be granted asylum. Not surprisingly, more than 50 of the
detained Haitians already have been denied asylum and
ordered deported.

To add insult to injury, INS officials deny that anything
has changed. ''There has been no change of policy with
specific reference to Haitian nationals in detention,''
said INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar in January.

Clarel Cyriaque of the Haitian Lawyers Association, Randy
McGrorty of Catholic Charities Legal Services and other
local advocates who recently accompanied U.S. Rep. John
Conyers, D-Mich., to see the detained Haitians believe
otherwise. While visiting Krome, advocates say that acting
Miami INS District Director John Bulger acknowledged that
he had made the initial decision to detain the Haitians
from the Dec. 3 boatload. The decision to keep them
detained and to detain new Haitian arrivals came from
Washington, the advocates believe. Mr. Bulger could not be
reached for comment.

AN UGLY HISTORY

The INS maintains that its policies are not based on race
or nationality.

Unfortunately, the INS has a history of abusive policies
toward Haitians, particularly in the late 1970s and early
1980s. The aim then, just as it is today, was to deter more
Haitians from coming here. Yet the practices now apparently
revived by the Miami INS district seem to mimic those
struck down by courts decades ago.

How long do Haitians have to fight the same fight? How long
must they wait to be treated as other refugees?



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