a1612: Haitian criminal deported (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

Thursday, April 4, 2002
Immigration court rules Haitian criminal can be deported
The Associated Press

MIAMI - The federal immigration system's highest court has
ruled that a Haitian criminal detainee can be deported back
home despite his fears of being tortured in jails in Haiti.

The Board of Immigration Appeals voted 13-6 to deport
Jeandis Esteme, a convicted cocaine trafficker. He remained
in Immigration and Naturalization Service custody while his
lawyers decide whether to appeal to federal courts.

Esteme entered the United States illegally in 1990 and was
convicted June 22, 2000, of selling cocaine. He was ordered
deported by an immigration judge July 2, 2001, but his
lawyers had appealed that decision.

Esteme, citing human rights and media reports, argued that
his deportation would violate an international pact that
prohibits sending people to a country where they would
likely face torture.

The United Nations' General Assembly adopted the Convention
Against Torture in 1984, and the United States has signed
it.

However, the appeals board ruled March 22 that there was no
conclusive evidence that torture was widespread in Haitian
prisons, although it acknowledged mistreatment of prisoners
occurred.

Immigration and human rights advocates say the ruling will
make it easier for the INS to remove Haitian criminals who
cite the possibility of torture to challenge their
deportation orders.

"It is extremely disingenuous to suggest that despite clear
evidence that deportees to Haiti are indefinitely detained,
beaten and deprived of adequate food, water and medical
care, that they are not being tortured," said Cheryl
Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant
Advocacy Center.

Three days after the appeals board decision on Esteme,
former Port-au-Prince police Capt. Jackson Joanis was
deported to Haiti to face his conviction in absentia for
the killing of businessman Antoine Izmery, a supporter of
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Joanis' Fort Lauderdale attorney, Carlo Jean Joseph, said
the Esteme ruling was "indirectly responsible" for his
client's deportation.

But Patricia Mancha, an INS spokeswoman in Miami, said
Joanis was deported after the same board dismissed his
appeal Feb. 26.

Joanis is now at the Penitentier National, Haiti's national
penitentiary and one of the jails often cited in human
rights reports for its deplorable conditions, Joseph said.

Information from: The Miami Herald


Copyright 2002 Associated Press.


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